After the 1979 revolution, many Iranian filmmakers struggled to adapt to new political and cultural realities, yet Taghvai managed to remain true to his voice. One of his most celebrated post-revolutionary films was
Captain Khorshid, loosely inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s
To Have and Have Not. Transposing the story to the Persian Gulf, he created a film of striking atmosphere and visual poetry. The story of a smuggler caught between survival and moral duty became an allegory for the human condition. The film won international recognition and remains one of the masterpieces of Iranian cinema.
