SFF 2023 REVIEW: Subtraction (تفریق)
Haghighi, all-round artist of acting, writing, and directing origins, leads Subtraction with direction reminiscent of Iranian greats.
Image: Subtraction (courtesy of Sydney Film Festival).
Since attending my first Sydney Film Festival (SFF) event a few years ago, the celebration has become a staple. The hole-in-the-wall venues, the independent screenings, and the company of like minded friends are a true festival in my calendar year. Now, I am no ‘film bro’. If anything, I struggle to get through movies, let alone go to the cinema and sit still for hours. Maybe it’s a me problem, or maybe I haven’t been watching entertaining movies. But Mani Haghighi’s Subtraction (تفریق, romanized as Tafrigh) made me question my impatience from the ground up.
What started off as a slow and perhaps even a depressing beginning to the film soon swept the audience up into a riveting reality of what it would be like to have and meet your doppelganger. Jalal (Navid Mohammadzadeh) and Farzaneh (Taraneh Alidoosti), a pregnant couple living in downtown Tehran, soon discover that they are not alone in appearance; Mohsen and Bita (also played by Mohammadzadeh and Alidoosti) live with their young boy in a classier part of Tehran and have never met Jalal or Farzaneh.
As we soon come to find out, a pregnant Farzaneh cannot take her usual medication that treats her severe anxiety. Her doctor, played by Soheila Razavi, previous co-actor on renowned serial Shahrzad (2015-2018), assures her that her hallucinations are a withdrawal symptom. Still in denial, Farzaneh follows who appears to be her husband, Jalal, to the home of the woman she thinks he is having an affair with. With a sudden reveal, followed by the classic I’ve-fainted-after-seeing-my-doppelganger trope, Farzaneh comes to realise that Jalal is not unfaithful — at least not in the way she thinks he is.
Haghighi, all-round artist of acting, writing, and directing origins, leads Subtraction with direction reminiscent of Iranian greats; Asghar Farhadi, Jafar Panahi, and Samira Makhmalbaf. The social realism Haghighi draws on, framed by the greater narrative of modernity versus tradition, boils down to the characterisation in his script.
Haghighi makes sure to idealise Jalal and Bita as the perfect selection from each respective couple, depicting them as close to flawless. Mohsen, quick-tempered, epitomises the figure of the toxically masculine man, refusing to apologise to the stranger — an man old enough to be his father! — whom he has physically assaulted. In the spirit of childishness, although the old man ‘started it’ with verbal insults, Mohammadzadeh’s Mohsen is hindered by his fragile ego. And with Farzaneh immobilised at home, deemed as unwell in an (Iranian) society that looks down on those with mental health conditions, Jalal and Bita step in for each other’s spouses in a win-win situation. In an unexpected twist, too nerve pinching to spoil, only one couple can remain in the war of the doppelgangers, referred to in the film’s Farsi as کپی.
Alidoosti’s performance is, as always, one worth viewer’s praise and attention. Having starred in numerous Oscar nominated and winning films, The Salesmen (2016), About Elly (2009) and Fireworks Wednesday (2006) to name a few, Alidoosti exemplifies what it means for an actor to have range. Shifting between Farzaneh and Bita, I couldn’t help but feel that I was watching two totally different actors. Or at the very least, the Iranian version of the Sprouse or Olsen twins. Having been jailed on the 17th December last year, it was a breath of fresh air to see Alidoosti return to Iranian cinema again. After making an Instagram post pledging her solidarity with those executed in the wake of the Mahsa Amini protests, Alidoosti’s fate was undecided. The global Iranian community continues to fight for justice, but in what is Alidoosti’s first film post-release, I can only hope she continues to inspire with her talent.
107 minutes of psychological mystery-thriller is not my usual cup of tea on a Thursday night; English Breakfast or a traditional Persian tea is my go-to. But Subtraction quite literally had me on the edge of my seat, my scarf wrapped around me as I audibly gasped after each twist and turn in the fate of the doppelgangers. Iranian cinema continues its journey on a global rise. With a few more rounds in the international film festival arena, Haghighi’s Subtraction will earn its place too.