A production team is currently examining the places where the film named “The Life of World Champion Takhti” is scheduled to be shot, the publicist of the project announced in a press release on Tuesday.
Tavakkoli’s previous film “The Lost Strait” was highly acclaimed at the Fajr festival, earning awards in six categories including best film and best director.
The film is based on a true story, which recounts an epic battle by Iran’s Ammar Battalion during the last days of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.
Saeid Malekan will be the producer of Tavakkoli’s new project. No date has yet been set for shooting.
Born in 1930, Takhti was the highest ranked wrestler in the history of Iranian wrestling. In the Olympic Games, he won a gold medal in 1956 in Melbourne and two silver medals, one in 1952 in Helsinki and the other in 1960 in Rome. In World Championships, he won two gold medals in 1959 in Tehran and in 1961 in Yokohama, and two silver medals, one in 1951 in Helsinki and the other in 1962 in Toledo.
Takhti died in 1968 at the age of 37 but remains one of Iran’s greatest sports legends and a beloved national figure.
Takhti’s life story was first regarded by director Ali Hatami in 1994. However, his film remained unfinished due to an illness that led to his death. The project was later completed by Behruz Afkhami, but critics lamented that the outcome was very different from what Hatami had written in his screenplay.
Source: Tehran Times