“Parallel Stories”, in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, hits the screens as the Iranian filmmaker struggles with the never-ending tragedy in his country.
«Excuse me if I keep my phone in my hand… With Iran, you never know when communications will go through! » says Asghar Farhadi. It is April 14, a week after the announcement of the ceasefire between Iran and the United States, but also a month exactly before the filmmaker takes to the stage for his new opus, in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Like his hero Adam (Adam Bessa discovered in The Ghosts)an apprentice novelist who projects a fantasy plot onto neighbors across the street, Asghar Farhadi seems caught between Parallel stories.
On one side Cannes, the prestige of the competition, the flashes that crackle for the five-star cast – Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Vincent Cassel, Pierre Niney and even Catherine Deneuve in guest-star – of this film on the throes of creation filmed last fall in Paris (and which is released in theaters on May 14)…
On the other, Iran, its country, that of all its “personal, emotional, affective ties”, I heard the “The situation is moving so quickly that we don’t dare comment on it.” and who bears the wounds of a war marked by « the destruction of civilian infrastructure ». Ce “war crime”, the director with two Oscars (for A separation in 2011 and The Customer in 2016) denounced it recently in a press release calling on the “ directors from around the world » to be indignant with him.
A selection in competition at Cannes is no small thing in the life of a filmmaker – even when you are as accustomed to honors as this 53-year-old multi-awardee who, in addition to his Oscars, has already received a Grand Prix and a screenplay prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Cannes, as well as a golden bear in Berlin However, Asghar Farhadi’s mind has barely started when his cell phone rings, takes a call from a loved one… and returns to talk with emotion about his upcoming return to the country. Every time I return from a trip, whether I arrive in Tehran or Ispahanmy hometown, I go to the cemetery to see the graves of my loved ones, my family. When I leave, I have the feeling of having been cleansed, of having distanced myself from all current affairs, from all concerns of relative importance. I feel ready again, willing to think, to create. »
A matter of morality
Being an Iranian filmmaker is not easy. Inside – and this is certainly the most difficult – you have to face an iron regime, quick to censor scripts, ban filming, imprison crews – screenwriters, actors and filmmakers. Jafar Panahi (including A simple accident won the Palme d’Or in 2025) is the most famous example, with undoubtedly Mohammad Rasoulof, the author of Seeds of the wild fig treewho today lives in exile. Outside, in Western festivals in particular, you have to satisfy the demands to take a position, to prove that you are an opponent. In France, Asghar Farhadi is regularly questioned by exiled Iranian actresses Golshifteh Farahani (his interpreter inAbout Elly) and Zar Amir Ebrahimi who both accused him of lacking solidarity with the “Femme Vie Liberté” movement. The director then refers to his text published on Instagram and entitled: “ I hate you HAS”. A direct address to the mullahs.
If we often look for Asghar Farhadi in the field of morality, it is because these questions have always been at the heart of his cinema. His characters – the group confronted with the disappearance ofAbout Ellythe couple in search of freedomA separationthe young woman victim of an attack in The Customer – seek a form of justice, an ethical path in an Iranian society consumed by corruption and violence. And despite the Parisian context of the film, this concern haunts just as much Parallel stories where the eccentric Sylvie (excellent Isabelle Huppert) observes her neighbors through a telescope to nourish her literary creation. Until the day she decides to abandon her manuscript. His housekeeper, Adam, appropriates it, goes to meet the beautiful neighbor (Virginie Efira) who inspired him, and makes her read the text… at the risk of torpedoing lives.
Vertigo of fiction
“Sylvie feeds without scruple on the observation of others,” explains the director, “she writes her book with an aggressive spirit, as if to take revenge for the wounds that life has inflicted on her. And Adam, who sees her as a teacher, simply begins to imitate her, without measuring the consequences of his actions. He believes that this is what being an artist is all about. HAS” Can art be born from resentment? Is it putting others in danger to use them as models in fiction? So many burning questions for a filmmaker who was himself accused of having appropriated the work of another… a former student judging that her study film – a documentary – would have served as inspiration for A heroes (2021). Farhadi claims to have simply been inspired by the same news story as her. Dizzying encounter of fiction and reality.
The controversy remains a real wound for a man who attaches immense importance to his work as a teacher. “What I try to pass on to my students is to draw within themselves,” he explains. The path to follow for a creator is quite the same as that of actors, it is the teaching of Stanislavski: memories, affects, emotions are deposited in us during our existence which constitute a very personal treasure, a sort of emotional bank, which means that then, when we create, we gives something very unique, totally different from what someone else would have done. HAS” In fact, Parallel stories is freely inspired by an episode of Decalogue by Krzysztof KieÅ›lowski and gives a film that has nothing to do with it. A Parisian film, between two apartments, in an environment of bohemian artists very far from war and the noise of the world… But also an eminently personal story for Asghar Farhadi, with a poetic touch in the writing which colors the story of Persian culture and the promise of ” a moment of catharsis, what art can give us to help us live HAS”. But now the phone rings, Iran is calling. Soon, Asghar Farhadi hopes, he will be able to go to the cemetery again in Tehran or in his hometown. And collect yourself while waiting for inspiration.
Parallel stories, in theaters May 14.
