Loosely based on Ernest Hemingway’s “To Have and Have Not”, Taghvai relocated the story from Cuba to the Persian Gulf, replacing Hemingway’s smuggler with a sailor navigating poverty, dignity, and the sea. The result was a visually arresting, morally complex film that earned him the Best Director award at the Fajr Film Festival and remains one of the greatest films ever made. Critics praised its rich atmosphere, the authenticity of its southern dialects, and its haunting portrayal of the Gulf’s sun-bleached horizons.
It was also a political allegory — a film about survival and integrity in an unjust world. Taghvai’s films are deeply moral yet never moralistic. His storytelling is driven by empathy and realism rather than ideology. He often said that if a filmmaker cannot tell the truth, it is better not to make films at all — a conviction that explains his long periods of inactivity amid censorship.
