Kaveh Mousavi’s Top 10 Iranian Films

2. Captain Khorshid (1987) – Nasser Taghvai

Another Taghvai film! Captain Khorshid is an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not, which moves the story to the south of Iran and adds elements of Iranian culture, like the way Kurosawa creates Japanese versions of Shakespeare’s plays. And the film is so well-made that that comparison is not that atrocious.

If you’re familiar with Hemingway’s novel, you know the broad strokes of the story:  a captain of a ship wants to smuggle a group of Islamist assassins out of Iran, but gets into trouble with a group of criminal exiles. Violence ensues. The movie is more loyal to Hemingway’s novel than Hawks’ film, but the Iranian background gives it a different taste.

It’s a great movie. It’s great firstly and mostly because it’s just a very well-made movie that does the job of a movie, telling a story with great dialogue in a very entertaining manner.  Everything is in its right place; you could use Captain Khorshid in a film class as an example of how to make a great movie. It’s like a classic Hollywood movie of the style of John Ford and Billy Wilder, and since most Iranian films are either absolute garbage, experimental, or bitter social dramas, this piece of classic film has a great place in my heart.