Event

UNDER THE SHADOW - Philadelphia Premiere

Cinedelphia Film Festival presents
UNDER THE SHADOW (Philadelphia Premiere)
(2016, 84 min, Dir. Babak Anvari)

In this atmospheric Sundance 2016 favorite, an Iranian mother and daughter struggle to survive in war-torn Tehran while simultaneously being haunted by an unseen evil.

Shideh is left alone to protect her young daughter following her husband's conscription into the Iran-Iraq War, now in its eighth year. Blacklisted and unable to finish medical school, Shideh is forced to stay at home. Anxiety over constant surveillance from authorities and neighbors, as well as the threat of bombardment from above, forces the pair to become more and more entrenched in their small apartment. As the threat of violence swells, creeping supernatural forces begin to torment mother and daughter. Slowly they drift into mania, unable to discern the real dangers from the imaginary.

Mixing allegory with artfully-designed scares, its easy to understand how Under the Shadow became an overnight hit at Sundance. Drawing from his childhood experience growing up in in Tehran during the Iran-Iraq war, writer/director Babak Anvaris inventive spin on a classic Islamic folktale deals with a mythology and setting western audiences rarely see. Fans of slow, ratcheting tension, unseen terrors, tricky demons, dolls in trouble, and creative storytelling should take note.

$12 admission, no refunds or exchanges.

Cinedelphia Film Festival
April 7-23, 2016
http://www.cinedelphiafilmfestival.com

PhilaMOCA
531 N. 12th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19123
http://www.philamoca.org