Director: Orson Welles

Cast: John Huston, Oja Kodar, Peter Bogdanovich, Robert Random, Susan Strasberg

The Other Side of the Wind is a 2018 drama film directed by Orson Welles, a decades-lost work co-produced between Iran and the United States that chronicles the final chapter of a legendary Hollywood filmmaker's career — raw, experimental, and unlike anything else in the Welles canon.

What is The Other Side of the Wind about?

Jake Hannaford, an aging and once-celebrated Hollywood director, has returned from years abroad hoping to salvage and screen his latest film — a bold, unconventional project meant to prove he still commands the screen. Over the course of a single wild night, a crowd of critics, acolytes, hangers-on, and rivals gather at his desert compound to watch footage and pay tribute. The evening spirals into something more ambiguous: admiration tangled with cruelty, myth colliding with decay. Welles shot this film across many years, deliberately blurring the line between documentary and fiction, past and present, cinematic ego and artistic sincerity.

Cast & crew

John Huston plays Hannaford with gravel and gravitas — a fitting bit of casting since Huston himself was a towering Hollywood legend. Oja Kodar, Welles's companion and creative collaborator, appears prominently. Peter Bogdanovich, a filmmaker and film historian, plays a character who mirrors his own real-life relationship with Welles. The ensemble also includes Susan Strasberg, Edmond O'Brien, and Mercedes McCambridge.

Context & significance

This film occupies a singular place in cinema history: Orson Welles spent roughly fifteen years shooting it, from 1970 to 1985, before dying without completing it. The Iranian connection is genuine — key production funding came from Iran, and much of the footage was shot in or around that arrangement. For Persian-speaking viewers, it offers a fascinating window into a moment when Iranian cinema infrastructure briefly intersected with one of Hollywood's most independent voices. The film was finally assembled and released in 2018 by Netflix and the Welles estate, drawing on thousands of hours of footage and Welles's own detailed production notes. It remains a meditation on artistic ambition, mortality, and the cost of chasing a vision.

Where & how to watch

The Other Side of the Wind is available on K-Time with Persian subtitles. You can watch on the web, on your TV, or on your phone — no VPN needed, no geo-blocking, no extra download. Cancel anytime.