The Mongols | Mogholha (1973)

Synopsis

A director of a television series on the history of cinema, who has been grappling with the screenplay of his first feature film, receives an assignment to oversee the installation of a television relay station in a remote region of Zahedan province, near the Afghanistan border.

He has already hired Turkoman tribespeople for his film and selected his filming location.
Meanwhile his wife, who is working on her Ph.D. dissertation about the Mongol invasion of Iran, attempts to dissuade him from accepting the assignment.



One night, while working on his history of the cinema series, the director fantasizes a diagetic world that consists of clever juxtapositions of his different worlds: the history of cinema, the history of the mongol invasion, his own film idea and his imminent assignment to the desert. -- IMDb

Cast: Fahimeh Rastkar, Parviz Kimiavi, Agha Seyyed Ali Mirza Sajadi, Edris Chamani, Darvish Abbas, Bahman Farmanara

Cinematography: Michel Terrier

The director of a television series on the history of cinema is planning to make his first feature film. He has engaged a number of Turkoman tribesmen and selected his locations.

His wife, writing a doctoral thesis on the Mongol invasion, tries to dissuade him from taking on a new assignment as manager of a relay station in a remote south eastern town, Zahedan.

One night, during the time that the director is working on his program, he dreams of the Mongols, of his wife's thesis, his new assignment, and his film idea.

On the day he is to leave for Zahedan, the director is faced with another dilemma. Should he set out again on a journey he has already made in his dreams?

The film received the special jury prize at the Second Tehran International Film Festival in 1973, the Prix de Cinema d'Art et d’Essat, Paris, and was shown at the Monte Carlo, Chicago, Mannheim, Locarno, London film festivals.

Noted primarily for its social content, and its artistic merit. Maghsoulou, Bahman. -- Iranian Cinema

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