MIFF NOTES: Under the Shadow (2016, Dir. Babak Anvari)

Cultural oppression takes on a supernatural dimension when the frustrations of Shideh (Narges Rashidi), an ex-medical student refused re-entry into university because of her political activism, manifest poltergeist-style around her young daughter, Dorsa (Avin Manshadi).

Dorsa would have her mother believe these violent apparitions are the fabled djinn, but as any fan of horror knows, the supernatural is only a distillation of our present fears. The beauty of Babak Anvari's Under the Shadow and its location in post-Cultural Revolution Tehran in the midst of the Iran-Iraq war, is that the layers of repression, guilt and physical danger are stacked so high that the ghosts are the least of anyone's worries - not that they don't give one hell of a good scare.

Anvari knows what he is doing and, though sparing with his use of actual spooks, manages to instil his film with real tension end to end. Even moments obviously primed for jumps still deliver frightening pay-offs because of how successfully the menace of the war torn city is rendered.

It is the performances that kick this one over the edge though, with Rashidi especially impressive in the inwardly-collapsing lead. She wholeheartedly sells Anvari's ambitious melding of ideas and images; it takes a solid performance to get an audience to a place where a suffocating hijab is believably terrifying.

And Under the Shadow is not only believably terrifying, it is wholly satisfying. You don't often get to say that about conceptual horror, so this is one to hunt down.

★★★☆

Trailer:

Under the Shadow screened as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival 2016.

You can check out other films from the festival here.