Journey to Yazdegerd Castle (2023)

The documentary tells the story of how a young British-Canadian archaeologist went to Iran in 1962, largely on an adventure. There, he became fascinated by Iranian culture, and began to study the country’s history in earnest, specialising in the pre-Islamic Sasanian era. In 1964, Edward Keall explored the ruins of the so-called Yazdegerd’s Castle, which local legends attributed to the last of the Sasanian king of kings. After he had secured a job in 1972 as a curator at the Royal Ontario Museum (Canada), Keall’s proposal to re-activate his old exploration of the castle of King Yazdegerd was endorsed by the Iranian archaeological authorities. The first Canadian expedition was mounted in 1965; the last one was terminated abruptly in February 1979 when the Shah of Iran was toppled by the supporters of the Ayatollah Khomeini. The film documents the events of these times.