What would you do if one day you found yourself facing a man who is a copy of you, and then found out that he is married to a woman who is a copy of your wife? Is it a kind of cloning, or is there some mistake, perhaps attributable to a troubled mind burdened with worries and a soul filled with fear and anxiety?
We all have a side to ourselves, that kind and good person who loves goodness and is the first supporter of his family, who takes things simply and calmly without any stressful obstacles. And on the contrary, we also have those personalities contrary to those qualities, and this is what the director (Mani Haghighi) did, who came up with a beautiful and intelligent idea by bringing to life those characters in reality and making them meet and intersect with each other, which negatively affected their lives.
Of course, this is a new color in Iranian cinema, which has accustomed us to realism in many of its films, and even the directors who adopt this issue are very keen to convey that realistic and human quality, and perhaps the most important directing school is the school of the director and the first poet of cinema, Abbas Kiarostami.
The film's title in the original Persian language is "Subtraction," and it refers to the distinction between two people, not taking something from something else or diminishing it, so the Persian title is more accurate than the English title chosen for it.
"Subtraction" is first and foremost a crime film, typically tinged with dark shades, atmospheres of skepticism, and the fervent pursuit of control, with a main character whose identity is blurred, so you don't know if she is herself or another character. But "Subtraction" is also a film about the natural attraction between a man and a woman brought together by something mysterious, which leads to a special relationship between them, and the inevitable "exchange" occurs, taking the relationship on a more cruel path, ending in a tragic fate.
The film was simple in its application but stunning in its idea, as it is somewhat similar to the film "Shutter Island," where you don't really know if you are in reality or a dream or if it's all just imagination from Farzaneh (Taraneh Alidoosti), who brilliantly created it and convinced everyone who watched the film that it is not the same as Mohsen (Navid Mohammadzadeh), who gives the role more than it deserves, and who I consider to be the new generation that will revive Iranian cinema and take it to another level, as it is difficult to make a film consisting of only two actors and a few assistant actors unless you have actors of their caliber.
The only downside to the film is that it wasn't as mysterious as I wanted it to be, and the main events were predictable seconds before the scene for me, and that's what disappointed me. But perhaps the interpretation of the events varies among us.
The noticeable thing is that the director used the rains that were falling all the time as a symbolic reference, with many discussions in the film about an expected imminent hurricane, by minor characters from the neighbors of Jalal and Farzaneh, and about water leaks from the ceilings, as if nature itself is venting its anger on the city, as there are natural phenomena that did not exist before.
The director of the film, Mani Haghighi, says: "I wanted to depict the mood of contemporary Tehran, the repression and anxiety, but also the deep and continuous hope for something better, without presenting an educational or explicit political film. I wanted to tell an attractive and thrilling love story, and to reflect the feeling of the double life that we all live in this amazing and strange city."
We all have a side to ourselves, that kind and good person who loves goodness and is the first supporter of his family, who takes things simply and calmly without any stressful obstacles. And on the contrary, we also have those personalities contrary to those qualities, and this is what the director (Mani Haghighi) did, who came up with a beautiful and intelligent idea by bringing to life those characters in reality and making them meet and intersect with each other, which negatively affected their lives.
Of course, this is a new color in Iranian cinema, which has accustomed us to realism in many of its films, and even the directors who adopt this issue are very keen to convey that realistic and human quality, and perhaps the most important directing school is the school of the director and the first poet of cinema, Abbas Kiarostami.
The film's title in the original Persian language is "Subtraction," and it refers to the distinction between two people, not taking something from something else or diminishing it, so the Persian title is more accurate than the English title chosen for it.
"Subtraction" is first and foremost a crime film, typically tinged with dark shades, atmospheres of skepticism, and the fervent pursuit of control, with a main character whose identity is blurred, so you don't know if she is herself or another character. But "Subtraction" is also a film about the natural attraction between a man and a woman brought together by something mysterious, which leads to a special relationship between them, and the inevitable "exchange" occurs, taking the relationship on a more cruel path, ending in a tragic fate.
The film was simple in its application but stunning in its idea, as it is somewhat similar to the film "Shutter Island," where you don't really know if you are in reality or a dream or if it's all just imagination from Farzaneh (Taraneh Alidoosti), who brilliantly created it and convinced everyone who watched the film that it is not the same as Mohsen (Navid Mohammadzadeh), who gives the role more than it deserves, and who I consider to be the new generation that will revive Iranian cinema and take it to another level, as it is difficult to make a film consisting of only two actors and a few assistant actors unless you have actors of their caliber.
The only downside to the film is that it wasn't as mysterious as I wanted it to be, and the main events were predictable seconds before the scene for me, and that's what disappointed me. But perhaps the interpretation of the events varies among us.
The noticeable thing is that the director used the rains that were falling all the time as a symbolic reference, with many discussions in the film about an expected imminent hurricane, by minor characters from the neighbors of Jalal and Farzaneh, and about water leaks from the ceilings, as if nature itself is venting its anger on the city, as there are natural phenomena that did not exist before.
The director of the film, Mani Haghighi, says: "I wanted to depict the mood of contemporary Tehran, the repression and anxiety, but also the deep and continuous hope for something better, without presenting an educational or explicit political film. I wanted to tell an attractive and thrilling love story, and to reflect the feeling of the double life that we all live in this amazing and strange city."
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