SUBTRACTION
Film - International Independents Filmfest 2023

SUBTRACTION

Directed by Mani Haghighi

Info

Director: Mani Haghighi
Section: International Independents
Country: Iran
Year: 2022
Language: Farsi
Version: Original version with English subtitles
Cast: Taraneh Alidoosti, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Esmail Poor-Reza, Farham Azizi
18+ (no age rating)

Logline

A star-studded Iranian thriller about lookalikes, done in the style of Hitchcock.

Farzaneh, a young driving instructor in Tehran, sees her husband, Jalal, go into another woman's apartment. When she confronts him about this, Jalal claims he was away on business. Puzzled by her story, he decides to take a look at the building for himself. There he meets a woman who is the spitting image of Farzaneh. Her name is Bita. Astonished, the two compare family photos. Bita's husband also looks exactly like Jalal.

Meet the director

SUBTRACTION

Mani Haghighi

Mani Haghighi studied philosophy at McGill University in Montréal. His first feature film, ABADAN, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2003. MEN AT WORK, based on an idea by Abbas Kiarostami, was named best screenplay at the 2007 Asian Film Awards. Haghighi co-wrote two screenplays with Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi: FIREWORKS WEDNESDAY (2006) and CANAAN (2008), based on a short story by Alice Munro. MODEST RECEPTION (2012) received the Free Spirit Award at the Warsaw Film Festival as well as a number of other international awards. Haghighi's romantic comedy 50 KILOS OF SOUR CHERRIES (2017) is one of Iran's highest-grossing films of all time. PIG (2018) received the Amphora d'Or for best film at the Festival du Film Grolandais in Toulouse and was named one of the best films of 2019 by "The New Yorker". SUBTRACTION premiered in the Platform section of the Toronto International Film Festival.

Credits

Screenplay: Amir Reza Koohestani, Mani Haghighi
Director of Photography: Morteza Najafi
Film Editor: Meysam Molaei
Composer: Ramin Kousha
Production Designer: Mohsen Nasrollahi
Costume Design: Neda Nasr
Sound: Rashid Daneshmand
Sound design: Amir Hossein Ghasemi
Make-up artist: Iman Omidvari
Producer: Majid Motalebi
Production Company: MAJID FILM PRODUCTION
Co-Producer: Jean-Christophe Simon
World Sales: Films Boutique