''Under the Shadow'' ( fa, زیر سایه‎, Zeer-e sāye) is a 2016 Persian-language

psychological horror Psychological horror is a genre, subgenre of horror fiction, horror and psychological fiction with a particular focus on mental, emotional, and Mental state, psychological states to frighten, disturb, or unsettle its audience. The subgenre frequent ...

film written and directed by Iranian-born

Babak Anvari Babak Anvari ( fa, بابک انوری) is a Iranians in the United Kingdom, British-Iranian filmmaker. He is best known for directing horror films such as ''Under the Shadow'' (2016) and ''Wounds (film), Wounds'' (2019). Filmography Director ...

as his directorial debut. A mother and daughter are haunted by a mysterious evil in 1980s

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

, during the

War of the Cities The War of the Cities was five series of air raids, missile attacks and artillery shellings on major cities and urban areas initiated by Saddam Hussein's Iraqi Air Force, with the aim of disrupting the morale of Iran during the Iran–Iraq War. T ...

. The film stars

Narges Rashidi Narges Rashidi ( fa, نرگس رشیدی) is an American-German actress of Iranian descent. She was born in Iran where her father was an army colonel. In 1987 she settled with her family in Turkey. A year later the family moved to Germany, where ...

, Avin Manshadi, Bobby Naderi, Ray Haratian, and Arash Marandi. Produced by British film company Wigwam Films, the film is an

international co-production A co-production is a joint venture between two or more different production companies for the purpose of film production, television production, video game development, and so on. In the case of an international co-production, production companies ...

between Qatar, Jordan, and the United Kingdom. The film premiered at the

2016 Sundance Film Festival The 2016 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 21 to January 31, 2016. The first lineup of competition films was announced on December 2, 2015. The opening night film was ''Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You'', directed by Heidi Ew ...

and has been acquired by US streaming service

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

. The film received critical acclaim. It was selected as the British entry for the

Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

at the 89th Academy Awards but it was not nominated.

Plot

In 1980s war-torn post-revolutionary

, former medical student Shideh is barred from resuming her studies because of her involvement with student leftist groups. She gets rid of her medical textbooks, but keeps a book of medical physiology given to her by her deceased mother. As the

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

intensifies, she elects to stay in the city with her daughter, Dorsa, despite the protests of her husband Iraj, a doctor called into military service. Iraj wants Shideh to stay with his parents in a safer part of the country, but she refuses. Iraj promises Dorsa that her favorite doll, Kimia, will protect her. A boy moves in with the neighboring Ebrahimi family, who are his cousins; his parents were killed in an attack. During a shelling, he whispers something into Dorsa's ear and hands her a charm to ward off evil spirits. Dorsa tells her mother that the boy talked about the legend of the

Djinn Jinn ( ar, , ') – also romanized as djinn or anglicized as genies (with the broader meaning of spirit or demon, depending on sources) – are invisible creatures in early pre-Islamic Arabian religious systems and later in Islamic mytho ...

; Shideh throws the charm away. She visits Mrs. Ebrahimi, who reveals that the boy has been mute since the death of his parents. Dorsa develops a fever and she and Shideh are plagued by nightmares. Shideh's

PTSD Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on a ...

grows worse from the trauma of living in a warzone but she is in denial. A missile strikes their building and Kimia goes missing in the commotion. Dorsa's behavior becomes more disturbed; she insists there is a strange presence in the house, and repeatedly tries to get into the upper floor, believing that Kimia is there. The neighbors begin to leave to escape the fighting. Mrs. Ebrahimi warns Shideh that djinns can possess humans, and will steal a beloved personal item of their victims. The Ebrahimis leave too and Dorsa and Shideh are the only two inhabitants left in the building. Shideh's own items start to go missing. Her nightmares escalate to visions involving a

chador A chādor (Persian, ur, چادر, lit=tent), also variously spelled in English as chadah, chad(d)ar, chader, chud(d)ah, chadur, and naturalized as , is an outer garment or open cloak worn by many women in the Persian-influenced countries of Ira ...

that moves like a ghost. Dorsa admits to seeing the same apparitions. Shideh finally wants to leave but Dorsa refuses until Kimia is found. Shideh receives a call seemingly from Iraj but the caller begins to berate her for being a poor mother. Shideh finds a mutilated Kimia, which upsets Dorsa, so she repairs Kimia with tape. When they are about to leave though, another air raid siren goes off. While going down to the shelter, she hears Dorsa's screams. She panics, believing that the Dorsa she left with is an apparition, and returns home to find the real one. She sees Dorsa under their bed but discovers that it is an apparition. Escaping to the shelter, she finds the real Dorsa. The two are attacked by the chador apparition and escape to the car. Shideh drives them to Iraj's parents. However, it is revealed that Kimia's detached head was left behind and Shideh's medical textbook is still in the djinn's possession, implying they may still be harassed.

Cast

as Shideh *Avin Manshadi as Dorsa *Bobby Naderi as Iraj *Ray Haratian as Mr. Ebrahimi *Arash Marandi as Dr. Reza *

Bijan Daneshmand Bijan Daneshmand (born 16 August 1958) is an Iranian born-English actor and artist based in London, England. He was born in Tehran, Iran, and was sent to England for his schooling at the age of 10. He was educated in England at Eastbourne Colleg ...

as Director *Aram Ghasemy as Mrs Ebrahami *Saussan Farrokhnia as Mrs Fakur *Behi Djanati Atai as Pargol *Hamidreza Djavdan as Mr Fakur *Nabil Koni as Mr Bijari *Karam Rashayda as Mehdi *Zainab Zamamiri as Sogand *Khaled Zamameri as Ali *Adel Darageh as pot-bellied man *Jalal Izzat as glazier *Suhaila Armani as female prison guard *Amir Hossein Ranjbar as young soldier *Houshang Ranjbar as senior police officer Also in the cast are Ehab Rousan and Rami Mehyar as revolutionary guards, Ahmad Mehyar and Abu Rashed as paramedics and Zeid Jad and Motasem Younis as fire-fighters.

Release

The film's global premiere was in January 2016 at the Sundance Film Festival. The rights to the film were subsequently acquired by streaming service

; Vertical Entertainment and

XYZ Films XYZ Films is an American film production and sales company founded in 2008 by Aram Tertzakian, Nate Bolotin and Nick Spicer, and is based in Los Angeles. It focuses on international genre films, including '' The Raid: Redemption'', '' The Raid 2'' ...

will assist in VOD releases and a limited theatrical showing starting on 7 October in the United States.

Critical reception

Review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reports an approval rating of 99% based on 92 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The site's critics' consensus reads: "''Under the Shadow'' deftly blends seemingly disparate genres to deliver an effective chiller with timely themes and thought-provoking social subtext." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has an aggregated score of 83/100 based on 20 critic reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Eric Kohn, writing for ''

IndieWire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Hollyw ...

'', said: "Jump scares and a frantic parent shielding her child from ominous supernatural forces: These tropes are hardly new to the horror genre, but they receive a fresh spin in 'Under the Shadow'". He noted some similarities between the film and two other horror films, '' A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night'' and ''

The Babadook ''The Babadook'' is a 2014 Australian supernatural horror film written and directed by Jennifer Kent in her directorial debut, and produced by Kristina Ceyton and Kristian Moliere. The film stars Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Daniel Henshall, Ha ...

'', and concluded that the film "smartly observes the emotions stirred up by a world defined by restrictions, and the terrifying possibility that they might be inescapable." Kevin Maher of ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' gave the film 3/5 stars, describing it as "an eerie, often unsettling, Iranian

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

horror film set in Tehran in 1988, at the height of the Iran-Iraq War." David Rooney, writing for ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

,'' described the film as "a gripping thriller about a mother and daughter under supernatural siege, which also doubles as a potent allegory for the insidious and very real anxieties of war, political turmoil and a society that oppresses women." He concluded: "Anvari deftly builds and sustains tension throughout, crafting a horror movie that respects genre conventions (right down to the safe/not safe ending), while firmly establishing its own distinctive identity." In December 2016, film critic

Mark Kermode Mark James Patrick Kermode (, ; ; born 2 July 1963) is an English film critic, musician, radio presenter, television presenter and podcaster. He is the chief film critic for ''The Observer'', contributes to the magazine ''Sight & Sound'', prese ...

named ''Under the Shadow'' his favorite film of 2016. On 9 July 2016, the film received the

H.R. Giger Hans Ruedi Giger ( ; ; 5 February 1940 – 12 May 2014) was a Swiss artist best known for his airbrushed images that blended human physiques with machines, an art style known as " biomechanical". Giger later abandoned airbrush for pastels, mark ...

Narcisse prize for the Best Movie at the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival.

References

External links