The Big Picture
Babak Anvari’s realistic approach to horror creates a chilling and tense atmosphere, making
Under the Shadow
a critically acclaimed must-watch.
Under the Shadow
‘s authenticity in language choice adds depth to its story of a woman’s struggle during the Iran-Iraq War.
The political undertones of the film are inevitable, reflecting the societal pressures faced by the protagonist in a war-torn Iran.
Getting a 99% critics-based score on Rotten Tomatoes is no easy feat. Thus, even though the opinions of experts aren’t always in line with audiences, it is always worth checking out a movie that has gotten so close to the coveted 100%. It is always sad, then, when a film with such a high score is underseen by viewers, particularly when it is so easily accessible. Things are even more tragic when the movie in question is an international cinema gem that not only tells a compelling story with beautiful camerawork, but also offers some insight into an often overlooked moment in history. Such is the case of Babak Anvari’s Under the Shadow, a 2016 instant horror classic that is readily available on Netflix.
Set in the middle of the Iran-Iraq War, an armed conflict that spanned eight years and left something between a million and 2 million dead, Under the Shadow is a scary and touching movie that deserves to be watched by more people, one inch tall barrier of subtitles be damned! Shot in Jordan in a co-production with Qatar and the United Kingdom, the film is entirely spoken in Farsi, the official language of Iran, which makes it a rare companion to its cousin, the American-produced, but equally Iranian-themed A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Ana Lily Amirpour’s 2014 cult hit. This choice was not an easy one: while Anvari, who also serves as the film’s writer, was hell-bent on telling the story in Farsi “for the sake of authenticity”, as he told Screen Daily, it took him a while to find Under the Shadow a home. Eventually, though, he took the project to Wigwam Films, a production company that was more than okay with him shooting in a language other than English.
Under the Shadow
As a mother and daughter struggle to cope with the terrors of the post-revolution, war-torn Tehran of the 1980s, a mysterious evil begins to haunt their home.
Release Date October 7, 2016
Director Babak Anvari
Cast Narges Rashidi , Avin Manshadi , Bobby Naderi , Arash Marandi
Runtime 84 minutes
Production Company Wigwam Films
What Is ‘Under the Shadow’ About?
Keeping the movie in Farsi was indeed the right choice. It’s hard, upon watching Under the Shadow, to conceive of its story being told in any other language, so much is the plot entangled with the events that took place in Iran in the 80s. The film follows a mother and a daughter trapped in an apartment under the influence of a malevolent spirit. The story develops just as Iraq intensifies its attacks on Iran, deploying missiles that cannot be anticipated by Iranian forces. The capital, Tehran, is under siege, and the population is starting to flee to other cities in order to keep themselves safe. In this scenario, Shideh (Narges Rashidi) refuses to leave her home behind despite the insistence of her husband, Iraj (Bobby Naderi), a doctor sent to the battlefield.
But staying behind has its price. The bombings take a toll on Shideh, as well as on her young daughter, Dorsa (Avin Manshadi). And after a boy whose parents have been killed in a bombing moves into a neighboring apartment, the mother-daughter duo begins to be haunted by a Djinn, who ultimately threatens to separate Dorsa and Shideh. Having had her access to medical school revoked due to her political activities, Shideh feels alone and useless, and the Djinn takes advantage of her emotional troubles to create a rift between her and Dorsa. When Dorsa’s precious doll, Kimia, goes missing, the atmosphere at Shideh’s home becomes more and more unbearable.
Chilling, claustrophobic, and full of extremely competent scares, Under the Shadow is, more than anything, a movie about a woman’s own struggles against a society that deems her insufficient, as well as about the constant death threat that is posed by war. Shideh initially refuses to acknowledge the presence of the Djinn, just as she refuses to face the true menace that Iraq’s missiles represent. She fights against the need to leave Tehran for her in-laws’ home, a decision that puts both her and her daughter in harm’s way. The Djinn is akin to the bombs in that it might just end up taking Dorsa away from her, but it is also a kind of conscience in how it serves as a constant reminder that Shideh is being selfish and irresponsible in her decision to stay behind even as she sees her neighbors leave one by one.
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However, the Djinn is also a representation of Shideh’s oppression under a regime that sees her as a second-class citizen. The Iran in which Under the Shadow takes place is a post-1979, post-revolutionary Iran: a country ruled by a theocracy that imposes particularly harsh conditions onto its female citizens. For having been involved with left-wing organizations in the years preceding the revolution, Shideh is denied access to education, and for leaving her house without a veil covering her head, she’s threatened with lashings. Her husband tells us to see her position as a blessing of sorts, as she can now dedicate herself to taking care of their daughter. So, when the Djinn threatens to take Dorsa away from her, it also functions as a society that sees her as less than, telling her that she is unfit to raise her child. It is significant that the final form the Djinn takes in the movie is of a faceless woman covered by a veil so big it engulfs both Shideh and Dorsa, nearly suffocating them.
Political Interpretations of ‘Under the Shadow’ Are Unavoidable
It is inevitable to come to these sorts of conclusions after watching Under the Shadow. And while producer Lucan Toh has told Screen Daily that the movie isn’t meant to be taken as a political work of art, Anvari is quick to recognize that such readings are inevitable: “If you grow up in Iran or live in Iran everything you do becomes political,” he states in the interview. Under the Shadow’s politics were also brought into question by the Iranian establishment, with a government-backed news website slamming it as anti-Iranian.
Politics also influenced the production of the film. Despite Anvari’s insistence on shooting the picture in Farsi, he was not able to take his crew to Iran, once more for the sake of a believable atmosphere: his goal was to recreate his home country as realistically as possible. “There are restrictions [to shooting in Iran]. I felt a lot more comfortable outside of the country, I wanted to tell my story in an unrestricted way,” Anvari explains. The most significant of these restrictions is the prohibition of showing female characters without a hijab even in their own homes. “Even the most religious women, inside their apartment, walk around without their hijab. I wanted to shoot it as honestly as possible. I can’t have my main character running around her apartment and going to sleep with her hijab on.”
Babak Anvari Manages to Create a Realistic Horror Film
Though many Iranian films, such as the ones in Asghar Farhadi’s or Jafar Panahi’s extensive filmographies, manage to tell great stories with its female characters wearing the hijab, Anvari is right in that the absence of such restrictions helps create an in-movie universe that feels a lot more palpable and lived-in. Under the Shadow is a realistic take on life during the Iran-Iraq war in the sense that there are no layers of disbelief keeping us from the main story – apart, of course, from the supernatural element that is integral to what Anvari is trying to say. The result is a horror movie that is as realistic as a horror movie can get, with a terror that stems not just from its monster, but also from the surrounding circumstances of its characters.
This made the movie an instant hit with critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film’s visceral quality, realism, and pent-up tension are praised. The worst thing anyone could say about it is that its first half can be a little on the slower side, but that’s entirely a matter of taste. The alleged problem is that the Djinn itself takes a while to show its face, so the beginning of the film does err a little more on the dramatic side, but that hardly makes it a bad watch. On the contrary, it serves to make us care for Shideh and Dorsa so that when the horror hits, it’s with full force.
With an audience score of 71% – also a high number, though evidently not as high as 99%, Under the Shadow is Babak Anvari’s first feature film. The director followed the project with 2019’s Wounds, an Armie Hammer and Dakota Johnson-starring horror that is much more confusing than it is scary, and the 2022 thriller I Came By. The latter hit 68% on the tomatometer, while the first got 47%. It’s safe to say that Anvari hasn’t yet managed to live up to his debut. He does have other projects on the way, including a project in the Cloverfield universe, but, so far, Under the Shadow remains his masterpiece.
Under the Shadow is available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.
WATCH ON NETFLIX