Mohammad Reza Aslani

Writing

Mohammad Reza Aslani

Born 1943-12-09 · Rasht, Iran

Mohammad Reza Aslani was born in Rasht, Iran, in 1943 and graduated in Art and painting from Teheran’s Faculty of decorative arts. He spent his filmmaking training in the Ministry of Culture. Aslani started his professional carrier in cinema in 1967 with the documentary film “Hasanlu Cup”, and then worked with another project “Child and exploitation (1982)”, a documentary made with the aim of display for management community. It was one of the best documentaries made in Iran in eighties. But shortly after its release it was informally banned and marginalized in 1982. Aslani’s first feature film called “The chess game of the Wind” (1976) was a new and different experience in Iranian cinema, which also was very daring. Iranian actress Shohreh Aghdashloo began her artistic activity with this movie by playing the role of a servant. Aslani made television series like “Samak Ayyar,” “light mist,” “logic of the flight”, script writing for movies such as “line”, “switchman”, “The Silent City,” “bottleneck,” “Requiem”, “the fourth morning,” “Stone Garden”. He wrote three books of poetry, “Bench Nights and Wind Days,” “The difference between the two Maghreb” and “Requiem for prohibited years”. Teaching at academies of Sura and cinema and theater, writing critical essays and comments about cinema is among Aslani’s other activities. His professional activities are enumerated. —onlinefilmhome.dk

Acting credits

Behind the camera

Chess of the Wind poster
7.1

The first lady of a noble house has died and now there is conflict between the remainders for taking over her heritage.

Chess of the Wind

1976

Chess of the Wind poster
7.1

The first lady of a noble house has died and now there is conflict between the remainders for taking over her heritage.

Chess of the Wind

1976

The Garden of Stones poster
6.5

Secrets and mysteries lose power when they are spread too widely. This is what the villagers discover when they invade an old man's vision-inspired shrine to the namelessly holy.

The Garden of Stones

1976

Abu Rayhan Biruni poster
NR

Documentry of Abu Rayhan Biruni (973-ca. 1050) the Great Persian Scientist.

Abu Rayhan Biruni

1970

Abu Rayhan Biruni poster
NR

Documentry of Abu Rayhan Biruni (973-ca. 1050) the Great Persian Scientist.

Abu Rayhan Biruni

1970

Our Cultural Heritage poster
NR

Aslani takes us on a mesmerizing journey through Iran’s archaeological sites of Chogha Zanbil, Kerman, Damghan, Yazd, and Kerman, narrating the tale of the Sufi mystic Daghoughi through a 13th-century poem by Rumi. The Pahlavi Ministry of Culture, expecting a far more conventional documentary, kept the film from being shown. It was only in 2024, when Aslani set out to digitize the film, that he discovered two reels had been lost. MoMA presents the world-premiere of Aslani’s re-edited version, which seeks to recapture the meditative flow of his original work despite its missing sequences.

Our Cultural Heritage

1972

Our Cultural Heritage poster
NR

Aslani takes us on a mesmerizing journey through Iran’s archaeological sites of Chogha Zanbil, Kerman, Damghan, Yazd, and Kerman, narrating the tale of the Sufi mystic Daghoughi through a 13th-century poem by Rumi. The Pahlavi Ministry of Culture, expecting a far more conventional documentary, kept the film from being shown. It was only in 2024, when Aslani set out to digitize the film, that he discovered two reels had been lost. MoMA presents the world-premiere of Aslani’s re-edited version, which seeks to recapture the meditative flow of his original work despite its missing sequences.

Our Cultural Heritage

1972

The Morning of the Fourth Day poster
6.0

A free adaptation from Godard's Breathless that follows Amir, a foul guy who has killed a man in Abadan. He returns to Tehran and continuing his misdeeds trying to convince his girlfriend Zarry to escape with him to the south of Iran.

The Morning of the Fourth Day

1973

Sadeh Festival poster
NR

Sadeh Festival in kerman iran 1340 shamsi

Sadeh Festival

Tarikhaneh poster
NR

A documentary about the ancient Tarikhane Mosque of Damghan

Tarikhaneh

1975

Tarikhaneh poster
NR

A documentary about the ancient Tarikhane Mosque of Damghan

Tarikhaneh

1975

Therefore Hangs a Tale poster
NR

The film's story is about a school that is expecting the arrival of an inspector, and everyone is anxious about the inspector’s visit. This film is a loose adaptation of The Government Inspector by Nikolai Gogol.

Therefore Hangs a Tale

1977

Therefore Hangs a Tale poster
NR

The film's story is about a school that is expecting the arrival of an inspector, and everyone is anxious about the inspector’s visit. This film is a loose adaptation of The Government Inspector by Nikolai Gogol.

Therefore Hangs a Tale

1977

The Quail: The Tale of a Boy Who Asks poster
7.0

A short film about a boy and his bird Badbade

The Quail: The Tale of a Boy Who Asks

1970

Hands of Hegmataneh poster
NR

A documentary about the city of Ecbatana, now called Hamadan.

Hands of Hegmataneh

2002

Hands of Hegmataneh poster
NR

A documentary about the city of Ecbatana, now called Hamadan.

Hands of Hegmataneh

2002

Chigh poster
5.5

A documentary of the epic story of the weaving Chigh. Chigh is a kind of texture made from wood and osier that is made in the ilats of the west of Iran and is used for covering around their Siah-chadors

Chigh

1996

Chigh poster
5.5

A documentary of the epic story of the weaving Chigh. Chigh is a kind of texture made from wood and osier that is made in the ilats of the west of Iran and is used for covering around their Siah-chadors

Chigh

1996

Hassanlou Cup: The Tale of the One Who Asks poster
NR

Story of the Hassanlou chalice, which becomes the story of Halladj.

Hassanlou Cup: The Tale of the One Who Asks

1964

Goodbye, Friend poster
9.0

Three friends organize the burglary of a jewelry shop, but greed, betrayal, and revenge quickly overcome their friendship.

Goodbye, Friend

1970

The Green Fire poster
3.0

Based on an ancient story Sang-e Sabor it's the story of a girl Nardaneh who one day hears a voice telling her that soon she will marry with a dead man. One day she enters a castle and in one of it's room finds a dead body with a book beside it. She begins to read the book and follows the instructions step by step.

The Green Fire

2008

The Green Fire poster
3.0

Based on an ancient story Sang-e Sabor it's the story of a girl Nardaneh who one day hears a voice telling her that soon she will marry with a dead man. One day she enters a castle and in one of it's room finds a dead body with a book beside it. She begins to read the book and follows the instructions step by step.

The Green Fire

2008

Tehran, A Conceptual Art poster
NR

This film is a modern rendition of a long tradition of so-called “symphonies of a metropolis”. The glassy facades of this city’s skyscrapers reflecting the passing by people of its diverse districts, shown in the reflection of distorted mirrors, symbolically depict the Spirit of a metropolis, as if it lives in its own shadows and reflections. This distorted reflection of Tehran comes together with modern verses of a poet who was known as the Poet of Tehran after publishing his illustrious cycle of poems about Tehran in the 60s. As a flâneur, the poet himself saunters around this city -through his voice/poem/memory- reflecting upon the reflections of old/modern monuments, sculptures, statues etc. of this giant metropolis.

Tehran, A Conceptual Art

2012

Tehran, A Conceptual Art poster
NR

This film is a modern rendition of a long tradition of so-called “symphonies of a metropolis”. The glassy facades of this city’s skyscrapers reflecting the passing by people of its diverse districts, shown in the reflection of distorted mirrors, symbolically depict the Spirit of a metropolis, as if it lives in its own shadows and reflections. This distorted reflection of Tehran comes together with modern verses of a poet who was known as the Poet of Tehran after publishing his illustrious cycle of poems about Tehran in the 60s. As a flâneur, the poet himself saunters around this city -through his voice/poem/memory- reflecting upon the reflections of old/modern monuments, sculptures, statues etc. of this giant metropolis.

Tehran, A Conceptual Art

2012