Under The Shadow (15.)
Directed by Babak Anvari.
Starring Narges Rashidi, Avin Manshadi, Bobby Naderi, Ray Haratian and Arash Marandi. In Persian with subtitles. 84 mins
Under the Shadow, a ghostly chiller set during the Iran/ Iraq War, is one of the most unusual movies you'll see all year. It's also totally formulaic. Life in a Tehran apartment block in 1988 that is rapidly becoming deserted as tenant flee the Iraqi missile bombardment, is not a location I can recall another British director choosing for a debut feature. But its story about a family coming apart as a supernatural force takes over their child has been used in every other major scary movie of the last few years, as has the briefly-glimpsed-creepy-figures-in-the-dark style of tension. It's familiar chills, in an unfamiliar setting.
The great advantage of the setting is that it gives the film more leeway to leave the build up of tension on a low heat for that bit longer. If you're doing your Conjuring act in a suburban gaff in Enfield, there is an obvious impetus to get on with it and start traumatising the kids as soon as possible. Here you can take your time and get to know the ins and outs of the relationship between the frustrated mother Shideh (Rashidi) and her daughter Dorsa (Manshadi.) When the jumps and scares come they are well executed and have a real impact, probably because we are so invested in this situation. (It bugged me though that there was not an exterior, establishing shot of the block she lived in. We don't get a measure of the dimensions of the living spaces, or even how many floors there are.)
There is a catch, though. Shideh is clearly a figure who is sympathetic to the West – her medical studies have been blocked by the cultural revolution, and she exercises to her Jane Fonda Workout tape on a hidden VCR player. One of it most striking scenes is when she runs into the street one night terrified and is arrested and threatened with lashes by the religious police because she isn't properly covered. When her daughter and others warn her about the presence of Djinn, malevolent supernatural creatures that are carried on the wind and are mention in the Koran she dismissed it as fairy tale nonsense. When, as in western scary films, she is made to see the error of her rational, materialist dismissal of the spiritual, isn't that an implicit vindication of religious extremism? It's an odd outcome for a film that has been touted as feminist.
Directed by Babak Anvari.
Starring Narges Rashidi, Avin Manshadi, Bobby Naderi, Ray Haratian and Arash Marandi. In Persian with subtitles. 84 mins
Under the Shadow, a ghostly chiller set during the Iran/ Iraq War, is one of the most unusual movies you'll see all year. It's also totally formulaic. Life in a Tehran apartment block in 1988 that is rapidly becoming deserted as tenant flee the Iraqi missile bombardment, is not a location I can recall another British director choosing for a debut feature. But its story about a family coming apart as a supernatural force takes over their child has been used in every other major scary movie of the last few years, as has the briefly-glimpsed-creepy-figures-in-the-dark style of tension. It's familiar chills, in an unfamiliar setting.
The great advantage of the setting is that it gives the film more leeway to leave the build up of tension on a low heat for that bit longer. If you're doing your Conjuring act in a suburban gaff in Enfield, there is an obvious impetus to get on with it and start traumatising the kids as soon as possible. Here you can take your time and get to know the ins and outs of the relationship between the frustrated mother Shideh (Rashidi) and her daughter Dorsa (Manshadi.) When the jumps and scares come they are well executed and have a real impact, probably because we are so invested in this situation. (It bugged me though that there was not an exterior, establishing shot of the block she lived in. We don't get a measure of the dimensions of the living spaces, or even how many floors there are.)
There is a catch, though. Shideh is clearly a figure who is sympathetic to the West – her medical studies have been blocked by the cultural revolution, and she exercises to her Jane Fonda Workout tape on a hidden VCR player. One of it most striking scenes is when she runs into the street one night terrified and is arrested and threatened with lashes by the religious police because she isn't properly covered. When her daughter and others warn her about the presence of Djinn, malevolent supernatural creatures that are carried on the wind and are mention in the Koran she dismissed it as fairy tale nonsense. When, as in western scary films, she is made to see the error of her rational, materialist dismissal of the spiritual, isn't that an implicit vindication of religious extremism? It's an odd outcome for a film that has been touted as feminist.
