TEHRAN – Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi's new movie “Parallel Tales” had its world premiere at the 79th Cannes Film Festival on Thursday and received a warm welcome from the enthusiastic audience, who gave it a seven-minute ovation after its screening at the Grand Théâtre Lumière.

Farhadi attended the film screening with his stellar cast, including Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Catherine Deneuve, Vincent Cassel, Pierre Niney, and Adam Bessa. Speaking afterwards, 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,” IRNA quoted him as saying.

“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.

Speaking about his film before its premiere, the two-time Oscar-winning director said that he allowed himself to go outside his cinematic red lines and play with structure in his Paris-set drama “Parallel ​Tales”.

“There ‌is a more formal playfulness and things that I hadn't done in my other films ... Things that were previously a red line for me. I wouldn't do them at all,” he underlined. “But ​here, in the structure of the film, I did them. From this perspective, ​it was a very valuable experience”.

Admiring his filmmaking, Niney said: “We were expecting a master, and he was really impressive the way he was able to pay so much attention to every detail. And that was like this during the whole process. He had such a precise idea of what he wanted.”

“Parallel Tales” was released in French theaters concurrently with its Cannes unveiling.

SS/