Parallel Shadows (2016)
Iranian writer-director Asghar Na'imi's third feature

Let me note right away that if you are going to watch the movie to see Shahab Hosseini, winner of the Palme d'Or, it is better to change your mind or find another excuse, because his presence in the film may be less than five minutes and his dialogues even less.

" Parallel Shadows" is a film directed by Asghar Na'imi and played by Abolfazl Pourarab, Samira Hassanpour, Shahab Hosseini and Hadis Fuladvand.

In a time when " The Salesman" and " Lantouri" were the kings of the box office and had the power to attract the audience, it's not a surprise that a movie like "Parallel Shadows" goes unnoticed and gets lost in fuss, and it's natural to talk about it as a less praiseworthy movie, and not even strange to find movie theaters showing it half empty.



But the name of Saeed Aghighi, as a screenwriter who has written " White Nights", one of the best scripts of Iranian cinema in recent history, is enough to encourage a serious audience to watch the movie.

The presence of Abolfazl Pourarab in the main role, who has been a long-standing moviestar of Iranian cinema, and somehow the first male moviestar after the revolution, might help to attract the audiance to the cinema.

Saeed Aghighi once again goes to one of Dostoyevsky's stories. Although according to the movie title it's going to be a free adaptation from Fyodor Dostoevsky's short story "A Gentle Creature" (the film is set in contemporary Tehran), the "Parallel Shadows" is an Iranianized adaptation from Dostoevsky's story that was part of the author's daily records collection.

"A Gentle Creature" is a single and depressed man's monologues against the dead body of a young woman  who is committed suicide ; the man, who has cut off from his past, is trying to find out the root causes of this tragedy by reviewing the past memories.

"Parallel Shadows" tells the same  story, but with a different ending, probably to bypass the undefined red lines of Iranian cinema.

*****


The synopsis of the movie

Nazanin, who needs money, lends her necklace to the middle aged antique shop owner and receives money for it. After a few days, the antique shop owner falls in love with Nazanin and this is the beginning of an unusual love.

Cast: Abolfazl Pourarab, Shahab Hosseini, Hadis Foladvand, Samira Hassanpour