Shadows Contactless: Friday 24/04/20 8.30 pm (Australian EST): UNDER THE SHADOW

This is a horror movie. Settle down, keep your seat and hear me out.  Like all horror cinema at the ideas-first end of the spectrum, it has something to say beyond "boo!" It's a tale that uses a malevolent force to say some very strong things about a way of life and a balance of power. And it's about folklore.

Early 1980s, Iran has deposed its autocrat Shah in a revolution but also plunged centuries back in time by replacing him with a theocracy. As a rocket attack happens out of an office window, Shidah is informed that, despite her studies, she is barred from practising medicine as women are no longer allowed to be doctors. Even if they were, she has a record of student protest which would have cancelled her plans anyway. Back home, her husband, also a doctor, backpedals on his support for her and says it's for the best. He gets drafted soon after and is assigned to the front against Iraq. Shidah must keep to their flat and raise their daughter alone. Into this tightened situation creeps a strange dark force. At first, Shidah passes it off as stress but the force itself has other ideas. She knows one thing for certain: it is dangerous to stay in the flat and dangerous to be seen in the street by the militia. Flight or fight?

Narges Rashidi, as the beset Shidah, grew up in war torn Iran, taking shelter against the conflict just as her character must. She brings that lived experience to her role as a mother who cannot afford to give in to a universe that seems to have suddenly turned hostile. Avin Manshadi as her daughter Dorsa is equally essential, displaying a believable, if unnerving, affinity with the force.

Babak Anvari would still be unable to make this film in his native Iran. He had to emigrate and find support from Qatar, Jordan and the UK to produce the film with a principal shoot in Jordan. To its credit, the film it still banned in Iran.

If you have seen the J-Horror classic that is Dark Water you might find more than a few simliarities. If you notice these things you'll remember that Yoshimi is so bound by her culture that, even in moments of crisis, she remembers to remove or put on her shoes if she's in or leaving the apartment. There is an echo here and it's a sobering one. It has to do with female head wear and that it has become an essential to Shidah's world as a political point will stay with you.

Yes, it's a horror film. I dislike attempts to dress genre up in clothes like "elevated horror" or "serious horror" when the same sense of fear is evoked in more mainstream fare like action movies or thrillers. There are, from memory, two moments that you could call jump scares but they are both earned by the narrative and need to be there. There is no gore. And at one hour and twenty-four minutes this film is not going to tax the attention span of anyone who watches movies on a regular basis.

Your couch, sir or madam. I dare ye!