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Bought on a whim as Second Sight have sucha good track record, Under the Shadow is an incredible film. Several skin crawling moments combined with strong emotional beats, one of the most underrated films i’ver seen.

Do you enjoy foreign films? Do you enjoy ghost stories? If so, this is certainly worth a watch. And a word of reassurance for those of a nervous disposition: this film is billed as a horror film, but although there are some genuinely scary moments, it will not have you wetting yourself with fear. It is much more a good old-fashioned ghost story than horror. The film is set during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, and takes place largely in a middle-class Tehran apartment building. The main protagonist is Shideh, played most sympathetically, and with great conviction, by Narges Rashidi. She is the wife of a doctor, called up for service in the War, and she is left alone to care for their young daughter, Dorsa, as the war moves ever closer. Her husband is keen for them to move away from Tehran to live in the safer environment of his parents home, but Shideh clearly finds them too traditional and restrictive, so she opts to stay in the city. As friends and neighbours flee, they are left alone in the apartment block. What happens then is the subject of the ghost story. It involves a Djinn, a traditional Arabic spirit or demon, which appears in the block, and takes a very specific interest in Shideh and Dorsa. I won’t say what happens, but the events are certainly open to interpretation. Is the Djinn real? And if so, is the Djinn malevolent, or is it really trying to help them? Or is it actually all in Shideh’s head, as she struggles to maintain her identity as a modern woman, fighting the pressures of her husband, his family and the restrictive rules of the Iranian authorities? The performances of mother and daughter are excellent, and the special effects are simple but very effective. A real sense of foreboding about both the war and the haunting, and a growing sense of jeopardy, pervade the action. And it is interesting to see how middle class Iranians lived at the time - it is remarkably familiar and not in the least alien. This is a film which really deserves attention, and will repay an open mind and an uninterrupted viewing.