Subtraction * * * *

It's raining men.  And they seem to look like my husband.

I'm sure they only send the best here, but most of the Iranian films I have seen are high quality (The Salesman, A Hero,.)   Subtraction is no exception

Subtraction is an audacious film that walks a fine line.  The idea is so stereotyped you could be excused for dismissing it. The old Doppelganger concept.   Finding someone who looks exactly like yourself.  

In the city of Tehran, Farzaneh  sees her husband Jalal catching a bus.  She knows he would normally be at work.  She follows him.  She sees him make his way to an apartment. Looking up at the windows she seems him embrace another woman.  Is he having an affair?  

Although Jalal is a kind and supportive husband we learn that Farzaneh is not a happy woman.  She is pregnant and she is on antidepressants and prone to mixed thoughts.  Has she imagined all this?

But Jalal soon learns about a woman who is a perfect replica of Farzaneh.  Then the clincher: the woman who looks just like his wife is married to a man who looks just like him.  Thus we have two couples who are identically matched.  

We get to know this other couple. The husband, Mohsen is overbearing and prone to violence, so much so that he is in a legal dilemma after having hospitalised a man.  Though we get the impression he would not raise a hand to his wife Bita.  

Actress Taraneh Alidoosti  is wonderful in playing the two characters. The irony of Farzaneh with a supportive husband but she is unstable and insecure,  whilst Bita lives with a domineering husband but has risen up and will not show herself as weak.  Her eyes shine with self confidence. 

Jalal and  Bita communicate and it becomes clear they are mutually attracted but would not dare to make a move on each other. There is a beautiful tension between Jalal and Bita in the car where the kiss seems imminent.  But you don't show that on Iranian celluloid!  I guess it wouldn't be easy living in a theocracy and making the kind of film you want. Sometimes you sense that you are supposed to imagine something. 

As the story unfolds, Jalal takes action and poses as Mohsen to help Bita out of a difficult situation.  But things go awry and we are to learn that Mohsen is a lot more violent than we first thought.

With characters posing as one the other, this could easily have slipped into parody and triviality especially in a hospital scene, but rather than giggling at the misunderstandings we find ourselves concerned, even frightened.

Subtraction has a Hitchcock feel about it especially as we progress to the conclusion and the plotting mind of  Mohsen.  The atmosphere is dark and gloomy and wet! It never stops raining throughout the entire film which adds great effect.