TALLINN, Estonia – “Duality,” the new hybrid feature written, directed, and produced by Iranian filmmaker Abbas Nezamdoost, world-premiered this week in Tallinn’s main competition, marking a bold entry from Iran’s underground cinema scene.
Nezamdoost’s sophomore feature charts the intersecting lives of three young Tehranis, blending color cinematography with black-and-white photo storybook sequences voiced by the characters. “Duality” opens on what appears to be an ordinary day for Tara and Nima, a young couple going about their routines, while elsewhere aban sets out on a journey of her own, swept up in the tremors of first love. As the film unfolds, it shifts back and forth between two different stories and times.
The team shot the film’s two visual modes separately in early 2024,starting with the moving-image material before capturing thousands of black-and-white photographs for the still sequences. Discreet special effects where later added across both strands,from a shattering mirror in the live-action footage to subtle cigarette smoke woven into individual stills,with the aim of making the photo sections feel as real as the filmed world. As VFX artist and filmmaker Ali Roozkhash explained, the process relies on close back-and-forth with the director: “Abbas wanted the photo parts to feel realistic, so I would make suggestions, and then we would discuss them and he would give me the freedom to apply them. It was a team effort.”
Nezamdoost said the film’s structure mirrors the duality of Iranian post-revolutionary society. “After the revolution, we understood from the very beginning that if you want to lead a normal life, you have to understand the underground way. And that’s how we basically operate our day-to-day lives. Everything in our society is hidden,” he told Variety.
His cast is drawn directly from that world. “We have Masoumeh [who plays Tara]; she is also a songwriter and a musician, and she performs in the underground scene. Eysan [in the role of nima] is a songwriter – he’s in a band which is very well-known in Iran, but it is indeed underground. And Sonia [Sanjari, who plays Aban] is the director of a theater, but it’s an underground theater.”