The Green Fire. 2007. Iran. Written and directed by Mohammad Reza Aslani. With Mahtab Keramati, Pagah Ahangarani, Mehdi Ahmadi, Ezatollah Entezami. DCP. 110 min.
Though Aslani wrote the screenplay for what was to have been his second feature film in 1979, the premature demise of Chess of the Wind in 1976 meant that no producer would dare collaborate with him. Aslani was further constrained under the Islamic regime, and only in 2007, some 30 years later, did officials permit him to go into production on this work. The Green Fire is now regarded as his second masterpiece, a brilliant meditation on the history of Iran that draws on Persian mysticism and mythology to create a labyrinthine narrative spanning the Arsacid Empire of the third century BC and the modern era. The film’s screening captivated French audiences at the time of its release—immensely gratifying for a filmmaker who had suffered three decades of censorship—but it is only now making its New York debut.