UNDER THE SHADOW
Iran, UK, Jordan, 2015, 84 minutes, Colour.
Narges Rashidi, Avin Manshadi, Bobby Naderi.
Directed by Babak Anvari.
As this film opens, it seems as if it is going to be a human story of life in Tehran during the prolonged war of the 1980s, the Iran-Iraq? war, especially with Saddam Hussein and Iraqi forces bombarding Iran, even the city of Tehran.
This reviewer has participated in the number of film festivals in Tehran over the years and one of the main impressions was that Iranians cinema felt the need to tell story after story, film after film, about the experiences of that war, implanted firmly in the Iranians psyche. As this film reminds us, the war began not very long after the Iranian revolution of 1979, the fall and exile of the Shah, the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini and the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Initially, the film is very straightforward, matter of fact, with the central character, Shideh, visiting the Dean at the University, applying to return to studies, but told bluntly that she cannot because of her political involvement, on the left, in her time at the University. Her husband, who devoted himself to study in university days, is a successful doctor but has had to respond to the draft sending him for medical work into a dangerous war zone. Shideh is left at home with their five-year-old daughter, Dorsa, though they are urged by the husband to go to stay with his family for safety.
We are treated to various details of life in the apartment block in Tehran, a caretaker and his family, with a young boy who is now mute having been present at the death of his parents; a woman who decides to go to stay with her son in Paris for safety; a kind lady who minds the little girl; a woman with an old father who suffers a heart attack…
And all the time, we hear the noise of the air raids, people hurrying down to the shelter, and a startling episode where a huge bomb comes crashing through the roof, unexploded.
Actually, this is not really the main point of the film.
Dorsa has been listening to the allegedly mute young boy who tell story of the spirits who travel on the winds, the Djins, mysterious and malevolent spirits from the Persian traditions. Gradually, this theme takes over the narrative, mysterious noises and sense of presence which are not from the air raids, objects disappearing, especially the doll that the little girl cherishes, books with leaves flapping in the winds, building up to a powerful atmosphere of haunting, of dread and fear, of mysterious presence and menace…
With the context of the war and the hostile attacks from Iraq, the hostility of the Djins serves as symbolic. But, while the film does give the strong impression of the experience of war and the city under missile siege, it also builds up into quite an atmospheric terror thriller.
1. The impact of the film? The opening realism? The moving into fantasy, haunting, horror? The blend of both in the context of the Iran-Iraq? war of the 1980s?
2. The Tehran setting, the city, filmed in Jordan? The international production collaboration? Re-creation of the Iran of the period? The musical score?
3. The information about the war between Iran and Iraq? The visuals, the footage? The length of the war? The context of the Iranian revolution in 1979? The bombings, the Iraqi missiles on Tehran? The atmosphere of the war?
4. Realism, Shideh, dressed in black, going to the University, the harsh interview, her being told bluntly not to pursue studies, driving home, the checkpoints, her tear? Her past, university studies, her husband studying, her political involvement, the consequences? The influence of her mother for her to become a doctor? The marriage, the tensions, the days of study, her husband and his success, Shideh at home, Dorsa and the care by the neighbours, love for her daughter? Her mother, the photo, the book with the inscription, the death? Packing the books, throwing them out? Dorsa, her age? The husband, the doctor, his work, the draft, his appointment to a danger area? His urging her to go to his parents? The resistance, staying in their own home? Her stances that you look after her daughter?
5. The apartment block, the manager, the issue of the rent, bolting the door of the garage? The boys, the play, the young boy coming after his parents were killed, mute? Shideh seeing Dorsa and playing with the boys, Dorsa repeating the story of the Djin, the later image of the young boy speaking to Shideh?
6. The neighbour, minding Dorsa, the woman and her going to France to stay with her son, the woman and the old father? Shideh and her consulting the wife of the manager, asking her to curb the boy with his stories, the revelation that he was mute?
7. At home, ordinary life, her doing Jane Fonda aerobics, concealing the VCR, finding her videotape in the rubbish?
8. Dorsa, her age, with her father, her mother, her attachment to the doll, wanting it during the sheltering? Her wetting the bed? Being affected by the stories, the meals, fever, temperature, watching the VCR, the continued search for the doll? Her mother finally opening the locked drawer, the doll broken, the mother mending it?
9. The air raids, the noise, the windows, the shelter, the steps, fears, everybody together, the huge bomb coming through the roof, the old man and his collapse, Shideh trying to revive him, failure, the medics, the glazier fixing the room?
10. The phone call to her husband, his harsh comments?
11. The increasing number of noises, the presence and absence of the doll, finding it, Dorsa’s accusations against her mother, the increasing visions, the woman, the huge cloak, Shideh caught in it? Growing dangers, into viscous material on the floor, Dorsa holding out her hand?
12. The decision to leave, the car, driving through the bolted door, on the open road? The future?
13. The background of Persian stories, Djin, ghosts, spirits, carried on the wins? Beliefs superstitions? Fears?
14. A ghost story and haunting in the atmosphere of war and attack?
