It would be strange enough if you find someone out in the world who looks identical to you. (Unless you’re a twin, of course.) But what would really screw with your mind is if you found out that your doppelganger is married to someone who looks identical to your spouse. That’s the situation for Farzaneh in the new thriller, “Subtraction.”
With “Subtraction” about to make its debut at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, we’re happy to give our readers an exclusive look at the trailer for the Iranian thriller from filmmaker Mani Haghighi. The film follows the basic plot outlined above, where a young driving instructor, Farzaneh, thinks she caught her husband Jalal cheating on her with another woman. But what she discovers is that it’s not really Jalal but someone who looks identical to him, who is married to a woman that looks identical to her. It’s a mind trip, to say the least.
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The film stars Taraneh Alidoosti, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Esmail PoorReza, and Farham Azizi. “Subtraction” is directed by Mani Haghighi, who co-wrote the film alongside Amir Reza Koohestani. Haghighi is probably best known for his most recent film, “Pig,” which debuted at the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival.
“I wanted to capture the mood of contemporary Tehran—the oppression and the anxiety, but also the profound, persistent hope for something better—without making a didactic or explicitly political film,” said Haghighi about his inspiration for the film. “I wanted to tell an engaging and suspenseful love story that captured what it feels like to live the double lives we’re all living in this amazing, weird city.”
“Subtraction” is set to debut at this year’s TIFF. A full international release has yet to be announced.
Here’s the synopsis:
In downtown Tehran, Farzaneh, a young driving instructor, spots her husband, Jalal, walking into a woman’s apartment. When she confronts him, Jalal claims he was out of town for work. He decides to check out the building for himself. There, he meets a woman who is the spitting image of Farzaneh. Her name is Bita. Stunned, the two compare family photos: Bita’s husband also looks identical to Jalal.