CHESS OF THE WIND & HIVE - Shirin Neshat, Blerta Basholli & Yllka Gashi

In today’s episode, we bring you special events around two of our recent hit films – CHESS OF THE WIND and HIVE. First up, we were honored to have the renowned Iranian visual artist Shirin Neshat join us to introduce a screening of Mohammad Reza Aslani’s sumptuous, long-lost 1976 melodrama CHESS OF THE WIND on Sunday, November 7. Here she’s introduced by Bruce Goldstein, Film Forum’s Director of Repertory Programming. In the second segment: the opening night Q&A for Blerta Basholli’s HIVE from November 5. HIVE is an engrossing drama about a young widow overcoming tragic and oppressive circumstances in post-war Kosova, based on a true story. Popular Kosovan actress Yllka Gashi gives a fabulous, steely lead performance in the film, which was awarded the Grand Jury Prize, Audience Award and Directing Award in World Cinema Competition at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. We were fortunate to have both Basholli and Gashi join us for the Q&A, which was moderated by Vox film critic Alissa Wilkinson. The event was co-presented by the Albanian Institute New York. Special thanks to Shirin Neshat, Janus Films, Blerta Basholli, Yllka Gashi, Alissa Wilkinson, Dino Korca and Jordin Rubio at the Albanian Institute New York, Sara Sampson, Josh Haroutunian, and Zeitgeist Films for making these events possible. Our runs of both CHESS OF THE WIND and HIVE have been held over. Check www.filmforum.org for showtimes and tickets. Shirin Neshat photo (left) by Michael Dalton. Blerta Basholli & Yllka Gashi photo by Tian Feng.