Cinema
Captain Khorshid
ناخدا خورشید
Naser Taghvai · 1987
Synopsis
In a port on the Persian Gulf coast where convicts are sent into exile, Khorshid, a one-handed captain, smuggles contraband cigarettes on his small boat. Denounced by Khajeh Majed, a rich merchant, he sees his cargo seized and burned by the authorities. A newcomer, Farhan, then looks for someone to smuggle exiles out of the country to the Arab shores: Khorshid first refuses, then, pressed by need, accepts.
Context
The film adapts a novel by Ernest Hemingway published in 1937, whose action moves from Cuba to the Iranian shores; its author wrote and edited it himself, with cinematography by Mehrdad Fakhimi, for producers Mohammad Ali Soltanzadeh and Haroun Yashayaei. Dariush Arjmand, who came from the theatre, played his first film role in it, alongside Ali Nassirian, Saeed Poursamimi and Parvaneh Massoumi. The film was shown at the fifth Fajr festival, in 1987; a restored print was presented in Tehran in 2017.
Who it is for
A film in Persian of about an hour and fifty minutes. It helps to know that the accent and customs are those of the coast, and that the story draws on the western as much as on the crime novel.
Prizes and reception
Bronze Leopard at Locarno in 1988, two acting awards at Fajr, and regarded by critics as one of the great Iranian films.