Under The Shadow — Under The Shadow( Blu Ray)
Under The Shadow was the first feature film written and directed Babak Anvari- and it has a stark-but-well filmed documentary style, with the largely score-less action taking place in the muted greys & browns of the apartment building where most of the film takes place in. The sub-titled film is certainly very accomplished & skilfully filmed, with Anvari both creating & capturing family drama in a believable/ real manner, and when the horror elements do kick in these are equally handled very well- so as debut films go this is most impressive. Where it does, at times, fall down a bit is the pacing, though the same could be leveled at many films in the Post-horror genre, but this issue is certainly a lot less problematic than some films in the genre.
The film is set in the 1980s, during the war between the Islamic post-revolutionary Iran and Iraq. It focuses on the family of Shideh, her Doctor husband Iraj, and their five-year-old daughter Dorsa. The film opens with Shideh visiting a government department to see if she can restart her study as a doctor- after been away from it for some years- unfortunately when the revolution happened she was politically active- so as a result she is turned down- it’s clear that she’s trying to break away from both the expected housewife role and the country oppressiveness attitude towards women. The family lives in a small apartment block in one of the cities of Iran - and fairly soon her husband is called up for his yearly national service. The city is meant to be bombed, with air raid sirens going off most nights, but Shideh decides to stay in the apartment- even though her husband insists she goes to live with his parents out of city- one night a bomb drops through the top floor of the apartment block, cracking the ceiling of the families flat a few floors below- and seemingly the missile has brought something with it- which may or may not be a Djinn- a malevolent & often invisible spirit that steals from those it haunts. The main focus here is largely family drama, with light touches of a war film- it focuses initially on the relationship between Shideh, Iraj & Dorsa- then the difficult relationship between mother & daughter- and both of these are believable & well played. When the horror elements do set in they are mostly very low-key, with slowly but surely things building to quite an intense finale- I won’t detail the film's plot any more, as it would really spoil both the unfold & build of the film.
Moving onto this new Blu Ray release on Second Sight- and on the extras front we get a commentary track from director/writer Babak Anvari and film writer Jamie Graham- here the pair move from discussing how/ when the film came about, and some of influence on the film- Anvari childhood in Iran during the conflict, Roman Polanski's apartment trilogy, and middle eastern films of the 70’s. They move on to talk about casting choices, set design, the origins of Djinn’s, and the film's popularity at Sundance when it came out- on the whole, it’s one of the better & more down-to-earth director's tracks I’ve heard, and is certainly worth a listen.
Next, we get a selection of four stand-alone/ on-camera interviews with the films director, producers, cinematographer & one of the actors- these each last between twenty-three & sixteen minutes. We get one of the directors' shorts Two & Two- an eight-minute film that sees a group school children getting a brutal & nonsensical lesson. With the finished release taking in a Softcover book featuring new essays about the film, stills & concept art- you also get a poster with new artwork on with the whole thing packaged inside a rigid slipcase.
As with all the films in the Post-Horror sub-genre, the horror elements in Under The Shadow are largely kept low key & subtle, with the focus more on drama, social realism, and the unbalanced treatment of women. But when the horror elements do appear they effectively move from feeling creepy-to-down right shocking- which one can’t say for many films of this sub-genre. So if you’re a long-term horror fan, and have felt more than a little jaded by Post horror in the past- I’d give this a go, and this new reissue really makes it worthwhile with the great commentary and other extras.