Cannes welcomes Farhadi‘s new film ‘Parallel Tales’

Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi's new movie ‘Parallel Tales’ has been warmly welcomed at the 79th Cannes Film Festival in France.

Having its world premiere at the French gala on Thursday, the movie received a seven-minute ovation from the enthusiastic audience after its screening at the Grand Théâtre Lumière.

Farhadi attended the screening with his stellar cast, including Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Catherine Deneuve, Vincent Cassel, Pierre Niney, and Adam Bessa.

Speaking after the screening, he said: “I’m very happy that we watched this film together with this wonderful team. Working with this team was like receiving a perfect gift.”

“Something happened today. The first person who suggested this project to me, and the reason I started thinking about it, was a Polish writer named Krzysztof Piesiewicz, who had collaborated on many of Kieslowski’s films. In our first conversation, when he tried to encourage me to make this film, he told me: ‘I would love for you to make this film and for me to see it’,” Farhadi added.

“But just before the red carpet, we received the news that he had just passed away (on May 14 at the age of 80). I think we should dedicate tonight’s screening to this great writer in the history of cinema,” he noted.

Taking its cue from an episode in Krzysztof Kieslowski’s television series ‘Dekalog’, Farhadi’s film stars Huppert as a reclusive writer who spies incessantly on her neighbors (Cassel, Efira, and Niney) across the street and weaves imaginary stories around its occupants. Fact and fiction collide when a young homeless man (Bessa) hired as home-help unleashes these stories into the real world.

‘Parallel Tales’ was released in French theaters concurrently with its Cannes unveiling.