Two-time Oscar-winning Iranian writer and director Asghar Farhadi returned to Cannes for the fifth time with “Parallel Tales,” a French-language drama he made while in exile after leaving Iran in 2022. He had decided not to return to Cannes following the death of Mahsa Amini and the subsequent protests that sparked the Women, Life, Freedom uprising, the biggest challenge to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution.
Since then, the director of A Separation, The Salesman and Hero has become a distant dissident. After finishing Tales last month, he returned to his beloved war-torn country before coming to Cannes.
While in exile, Farhadi began work on Parallel Tales, an adaptation of Polish master Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Decalog: Six, which explores themes of obsession, surveillance, and unrequited love. He originally set the story in the United States, but producer Alexandre Mallet-Guy and his American partners were unable to raise the financing. So he moved the production to Paris and quickly assembled an all-star cast, including Isabelle Huppert, Adam Bessa, Virginie Efira, Vincent Cassel, Pierre Niney, and Catherine Deneuve.
“Parallel Tales” is a work in which fiction and reality intertwine, with Huppert playing a reclusive Parisian novelist who spies on his neighbor, a Foley artist, in search of creative inspiration. It was released in 2008, but received less critical response, and was simultaneously released via France’s Memento Films, where it debuted at No. 1, attracting more than 125,000 viewers and collecting about $1.2 million in its opening slot, making it the same opening performance. It was a French version of “The Past” and ended up being a local hit.
Farhadi spoke to Variety in Cannes about the long journey behind Parallel Tales and why she decided to return to her home country, where she had vowed not to work until it was possible to make films in which women were not veiled.
Please tell us about the origin of “Parallel Tales”
It all started five years ago when an American company approached me, through an American agent, with a project to turn Kieślowski’s Decalogue into a series (all 10 episodes).
I had no special interest in the series, and I still don’t. So I didn’t really think about this offer. But then they said, “Why don’t you talk to Krzysztof Piesiewicz?” Who was the writer Kieślowski – who unfortunately passed away very recently – and we had this Zoom conversation. I’m in Iran and he’s in Poland. I said, “Okay, if you’re not interested in making it into a series, why don’t you just choose one of the episodes and use it as inspiration to make your own feature film?” And I thought, “Oh, that might be more interesting!” Then I started thinking, “But which episode would I choose?” “Would you like to watch them all again and choose one?” “Maybe I should choose the one that stuck with me the most.” That was “Short Films About Love.” Then my brother Saeed and I started talking about it and how we were going to be involved in this story. Because I’ve never adapted before. I had never before worked on any other film or film or even literature.
Please tell us more about how you approached the film adaptation of Kieślowski.
What came up in our conversation was the idea that this boy, a peeping tom, kept spying on this woman. And he falls in love with her just by the image. He only has images to fantasize about. But what if there is a sound? What would happen if the sound had this kind of character? So we came up with the idea of making the people the characters observe become sound makers, Foley artists. It became an avenue for a narrative that reflects between images, sounds and texts. Another aspect of “Episode 6” that I really liked was the older female characters. her loneliness. I think that was another thread that I followed to bring this new world to the forefront.
Sound is obviously a very important aspect of this film. For American movie fans, this movie will remind you of Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation.” Was that the movie you had in mind?
No, at least not consciously. I’ve always had a personal obsession with sound. I have never tried to understand why and how. But looking back, even as a student, the paper I did in college was about silence in Harold Pinter’s body of work. So I’ve always been interested in sound and the power of sound, and I find that there is more drama in sound than in images. That’s always been my perception. I think there are really two types of people. Speaking of trains, some people may see a train passing by. Also, some people can hear the sound of trains with their eyes closed. I think that for me, sound can further expand the scope of my imagination. That’s one of the reasons I’m interested in sound.
You worked with some of the finest French talent, including Isabelle Huppert, Vincent Cassel, and Catherine Deneuve. But I want to talk about Adam Bessa. Because he’s an up-and-coming actor. Also, his character represents a kind of contrast, a social contrast, to the other characters in the film.
First of all, I have to say that it was never my intention to have a five-star cast from the beginning. After it was decided that the film would be made in France, I just came to France and started working. I already had actors in mind for some of the roles. And for the others, I started watching recent French movies to see who I was.
I could choose. But then I started talking to producers, and actually the first person I approached accepted almost immediately. So it just so happened that we ended up with this gorgeous cast. It was very quick and easy. And it was a real honor to work with all of them. As for Adam, it’s true that he was a very important character to me. I knew that the interesting thing about[him]was that he was a man of few words. he speaks little. he is mysterious he is very lonely And what I knew was that I wanted him to be an outsider. Not necessarily foreigners, but people from really different backgrounds.
In terms of being an outsider to France and making a film that is not in your language, from what I understand, your permanent interpreter who is interpreting this interview, Masmey Lahiji, worked with you on this film. I’m interested, so please tell me more about this collaboration.
The collaboration with Massmey began several years ago. First, she did the subtitles for the movie. However, when I started working overseas, our collaboration deepened. This is the third film we’ve worked on together. You might think it’s just a translation. It means writing a script and having it translated into another language. But it’s more than that. This is a very delicate and time-consuming process. Because I need to make sure that every subtle part of the text, every unspoken part, especially the dialogue, is exactly what I want. what i’m looking for. There are some cultural aspects that you need to check to see if it’s correct. And she teaches me this knowledge.
It is no secret that you recently returned to Iran, even though you vowed not to make films there until you had complete freedom. My question is, as an artist, is it fair to assume that your interests lie in Iran?
“You’re right. It’s like having a sick mother. When she’s sick, there’s not much you can do. All you can do is sit next to her and hold her hand. You can’t leave her, just leave her alone. This is my land. My sentence. It’s my language. So I feel rooted there. As soon as I’m able to go out and work, I feel rooted there.” We finished post-production at 1 o’clock and at 5 pm I was at the airport waiting for my flight.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
