Under the Shadow – Five Questions with Director Babak Anvari
Under The Shadow takes place in Tehran, 1988: As the Iran-Iraq War rumbles into its eighth year, a mother and daughter are slowly torn apart by the bombing campaigns on the city coupled with the country’s bloody revolution. As they struggle to stay together amidst these terrors, a mysterious evil stalks their apartment.
That’s the movie, now let’s get the story from its writer-director, Babak Anvari.
Dread Central: I’m sure you’ve heard of, or perhaps even saw, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, the “other” Iranian horror film… do you think directors whose lives have been so hard-hit by war are somehow better equipped, or differently rigged, to tell horror stories in a narrative format?
Babak Anvari: No, not necessarily. I don’t believe one should need to experience trauma or hardship in order to tell a good story. There are many excellent and engaging horror films out there, where the directors have not experienced war or political turmoil.
DC: What were some of your favorite ghost stories when you were growing up – or even now – and how did they shape Under the Shadow?
BA: I have so many favorite ghost stories. I used to love all of the urban myths about ghosts, djinn, and demons when I was growing up. Djinn is a Middle Eastern myth, very similar to demons. I had a classmate at primary school who used to tell me stories about djinn, selling them to me as real stories, even though now that I think about it, probably all of them were made up by him. He even told me how to capture djinn once, but I was too scared to follow the ritual – he warned me that if I mess up, the djinn would kill me! I guess that’s why I made a film about the myth of djinn. When I was older, I read some interesting studies about these rituals by the Iranian author G. Saedi, whose book The People of the Air is referenced in my film, Under the Shadow.
In terms of more popular ghost stories, I love some of the classics like “Oh, Whistle and I Come to You” by M. R. James or “The Turn of the Screw” by Henry James and obviously Edgar Allan Poe’s stories like “The Fall of the House of Usher.” In terms of films, The Haunting (original 1963 version), The Others, Jack Clayton’s The Innocents (which is based on “The Turn of the Screw”), Poltergeist, and possibly many more titles which I can’t remember at the moment. But I guess you can see the influence of all the above on Under the Shadow.
DC: I haven’t seen the movie yet – congrats on your big Sundance premiere! – but I watched the trailer and a clip and am very impressed by how you use everything at your disposal to tell the story not just with words but using the camera in unusual ways. It’s not “shaky-cam” exactly, more “sway-cam” – was this your idea or your DP’s?
BA: Thank you very much. I’m very excited about Sundance. It’s interesting what you’ve mentioned about the camera work – film is a visual medium so camera work and lighting is very important to me. My DP, Kit Fraser, is one of the most talented people I know, and it’s always a pleasure working with him. We met at film school, so not only are we very close friends, but we’re also great collaborators, mainly because we know each other very well. Kit was the first person who heard the idea of Under the Shadow, when it was just something I was thinking of, and he was very supportive and encouraging from day one. We were constantly chatting about the look of the film as I was developing the script (and not even being sure whether it’s ever going to be made). Once we were set to go, we knew exactly what we wanted. We spent many days at the locations, just the two of us, blocking the scenes for the camera. The way we work is that either I come up with an idea and Kit adds his magic and makes it perfect, or he comes up with an idea and I just make further suggestions, so we complement each other in that way and we’re always on the same page. The visual style of the film is the result of this collaboration, but Kit is ultimately the one who executed it, and what you see is the testament of his skill and talent and the hard work of his team.
DC: Tell us a bit about the storyline, your cast, and when horror fans who are not going to Sundance will be able to see Under the Shadow.
BA: Well, all I can say is that it is set in the 80s Tehran, during the Iran-Iraq war and a couple of years after the Iranian revolution. It’s about a young mother named Shideh, who is left on her own with her young daughter as her husband is sent to war. Soon Tehran becomes the target of Iraqi missile attacks, and as her surroundings become increasingly unsafe, she starts to believe that a malevolent supernatural force is haunting her apartment block, and this force is possibly after her daughter… This is a quick summary. I was adamant to make the story in Farsi for the sake of authenticity, so it was very important to find actors who can speak Farsi fluently. We looked everywhere and managed to find some amazing and skilled Farsi-speaking Persian actors in different parts of the world – USA, UK, Germany, France, Italy – and we brought them all to Amman, Jordan, to recreate the 80s Tehran. It was an incredible experience, and I cannot wait to share it with the world. Hopefully the film will be released soon, maybe later this year, so that everyone can see it.
Under the Shadow will debut globally on Netflix later this year, shortly after a theatrical or alternative-platform release. The film’s theatrical rights have yet to be announced.
The film stars Narges Rashidi and Avin Manshadi.
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