Asghar Farhadi's new film titled 'Parallel Stories' at the Cannes Film Festival; crossing the usual red lines in filmmaking style

Asghar Farhadi, the Iranian director and two-time Oscar winner, announced before the screening of his new film 'Parallel Stories' at the Cannes Film Festival that this time he has crossed some of his personal rules and 'red lines' in the film's narrative structure.

Farhadi said:

"In this film, there is a kind of playful form and structure; things that I hadn't done in my previous works... things that were previously considered red lines for me and I never approached them."

He added:

"But here, in the structure of the film, I tried them, and from that perspective, it was a very valuable experience."

Farhadi, who has been living outside Iran since 2023, is competing for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for the fifth time with 'Parallel Stories'.

This film, set in Paris, features Isabelle Huppert and Vincent Cassel.

Farhadi won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 2011 with his film 'A Separation', which later won the first Oscar in the history of Iranian cinema for Best Foreign Language Film.

Five years later, he won his second Oscar with 'The Salesman', but boycotted the Oscars ceremony in protest against the travel ban on citizens from several Muslim-majority countries during Donald Trump's first presidency.

'Parallel Stories' tells the story of a homeless thief played by Adam Bessa, who enters the life of a reclusive writer played by Isabelle Huppert after doing a good deed.

This writer is in the process of writing a dark story about the staff of a sound studio in the building across; characters played by Vincent Cassel, Virginie Efira, and Pierre Niney.

The thief takes a copy of this writer's manuscript and presents it as his own to one of the studio staff. This event causes all the characters to get caught in a web of suspicion, espionage, and distrust.

Pierre Niney spoke about working with Farhadi, saying:

"We expected to work with a master, and he was truly amazing; he paid attention to the smallest details."

He added, referring to Farhadi's obsession with staging:

"He even poured drops of water on the actors' clothes himself to achieve exactly the desired level of wetness."

Niney continued:

"It was like that at every stage of the work. He knew exactly what he wanted."

Source: Reuters