Director: Mohammadreza Aslani
Cast: Fakhri Khoroush, Mohammad Ali Keshavarz, Shohreh Aghdashlou, Shahram Golchin, Hamid Ataiy
Shatranje Baad (Chess of the Wind) is a 1976 Iranian drama-thriller directed by Mohammadreza Aslani, set inside a crumbling aristocratic household at the turn of the Persian century. With a 7.3 IMDb rating, it stands as one of pre-revolutionary Iranian cinema's most quietly devastating explorations of inheritance, power, and moral decay.
What is Shatranje Baad about?
At the dawn of the twentieth Persian century, the matriarch of a great noble family passes away, leaving behind a paralysed daughter — Khanom Kuchak — as her heir. What follows is a slow, suffocating battle among those who circle the estate: the stepfather Atabak, a scheming maidservant, a loyal wet-nurse, and ambitious step-nephews, each maneuvering to seize the family's wealth. Aslani constructs the drama as a closed game, every character a player moving pieces across a board where the stakes are a house, a legacy, and ultimately the fate of a helpless young woman caught between competing hungers.
The K-Time take
Aslani's direction is rigorously composed — long, observational takes, minimal score, interiors lit like stage paintings — lending the film an almost theatrical stillness that makes its undercurrents of greed feel all the more suffocating. Shohreh Aghdashlou's early-career presence and Mohammad Ali Keshavarz's measured menace give the ensemble an unusual weight for the era.
Cast & crew
Director Mohammadreza Aslani brought a literary precision to Iranian cinema rarely seen at the time. Fakhri Khoroush, one of Iran's most respected dramatic actresses, leads the cast alongside Mohammad Ali Keshavarz, a titan of Persian stage and screen. Shohreh Aghdashlou appears in an early role, years before her international profile, and Shahram Golchin and Hamid Ataiy round out a carefully assembled ensemble.
Context & significance
Shatranje Baad was made in the final years before the 1979 revolution, a period when Iranian art-house cinema was reaching genuine maturity — producing works that used domestic interiors as mirrors for social critique. The film belongs to a lineage of Persian chamber dramas in which class, gender, and inheritance intersect with quiet but relentless force. For diaspora viewers who grew up hearing about the Iran of that era, the film offers something rare: a precise, unsentimental window into aristocratic Tehran, its rituals and its rot. It was rediscovered internationally after surviving decades of obscurity, making it especially meaningful for anyone tracing the full arc of pre-revolutionary Iranian culture.
Where & how to watch
Shatranje Baad is available on K-Time in its original Persian audio with English subtitles available — no Persian dub for this title. Stream it on your browser, smart TV, or phone with no VPN needed, no geo-blocking, and no extra download. Subscribe and cancel anytime.