ROYA - MIFF 2026

As per the MIFF guide: “Iranian teacher Roya is a political prisoner, detained and humiliatingly tortured after her students burned their hijabs. The regime offers her two options: make a televised confession falsely denouncing her beliefs; or face indefinite solitary confinement in her tiny prison cell. But for Roya, choice and coercion blur as she drifts between memories, interrogators’ lies and isolation-driven hallucinations. Is her family really at risk if she doesn’t confess? Is her silence resilience, or will it only confirm her guilt? Will confessing end the terror, or bring it inside forever?”

The opening ten or so minutes of “Roya” are an endurance test for the viewer that actually had me contemplating leaving the cinema, which is something that I never do. The reason for this is because these early moments are shot from Roya's point of view, except for the majority of it she is blindfolded and forced to dress in a traditional chador (thus covered from head to toe), as she is violently escorted from her tiny cell to a room where the State are trying to force Roya into a confession, denouncing her political beliefs. The fact that Roya is blindfolded, we the viewer can see very little from her point of view, as she fumbles around unknown rooms, trying to find her footing, while she is hit, kicked and tripped by her captors. All we can see are the flickering fluorescent lights in her cell, a bit of graffiti on her cell wall, blood stains on the path she is being taken on, a bit of a chair, a swinging leg as it is about to kick her, and the distinctive pointy shoes of her guard. We hear a lot though, and none of it is pleasant, as Roya is being regularly beaten and we can hear the desperate cries of other women from their cells. The camera work is very shaky, and none of it is very cinematic as we can barely see anything, and if the film was going to be shot entirely from Roya's point of view, I didn't know if I wanted to stay and watch it. After watching “Roya”, I read a brief interview with director Mahnaz Mohammadi about this opening scene, who admitted that her producer was also not sure about her visual approach to this scene but she stated that she had to be true to her own experience, and when she was incarcerated in Evin prison, just like Roya herself in the film, she never saw anything of the jail because she was always blindfolded when moved around. As it turns out, I was glad I stayed because what followed this opening scene was a stunning film that examines the struggles of Roya's mind against authoritarian power after she is released (while she is physically out, she still remains a prisoner within her mind), and through all of this, I also got a greater appreciation of the opening moments of the film and why it had to be presented like that.

Roya is a political prisoner sent to jail for her beliefs and for encouraging her students to burn their hijabs, for which she is sentenced to six months in Tehran's notorious Evin prison. She is eventually released on a three day pass to attend what she believes to be her father's funeral, only to find that it is actually her sister's, who mysteriously died the same day she had a violent argument with government agents over the unknown whereabouts of Roya. After the funeral, Roya heads for home where she suffers from constant PTSD as she finds herself lost in memory, hallucination and fantasy, to the point that she can no longer discern what is real or not.

Director Mahnaz Mohammadi is well known for defending women's rights in Iran that has seen her arrested on numerous occasions, where she spent time in the same prison her character Roya does. The point of “Roya” is to show how when you come out of Evin prison, you are a changed person. After all the abuse and manipulation you suffer inside, it is impossible to come out the same as you find you can no longer trust anyone, including yourself as you start to question everything that has happened and is happening. Mohammadi has done an amazing job with “Roya” as she succeeds wonderfully at keeping her audience unsettled and off centre as like Roya herself, they try to work out what is real or not. Did this happen or is it all in Roya's head? When Roya attends her sister's funeral, whilst it is devastating, you start to hear familiar sounds that you had heard in that opening scene, like the sound of Roya's interrogators shoes. He even comes up to wish her well, and then bends down to whisper “you only have two days left”, but was that really him or is Roya imagining him? (Remember, she has never seen his face). Once Roya makes it to her house, that is when things get really crazy, as she is constantly bothered by a flickering light in one of her rooms, “Mr Pointy Shoes” keeps leaving threatening messages on her answering machine, and people are constantly pacing around the fence of her yard. The film plays out like a kind of nightmare where locations and characters suddenly change without warning, so for someone like me who loves dream logic used in film, you can see why I responded so strongly towards “Roya”.

Mohammadi shot “Roya” in secret, because she is technically still not allowed to make films after being given a ban by the regime following her debut feature “Son-Mother” (2019). She shot the outdoor scenes without permits in Iran, while the scenes set in the prison were shot in Georgia. I am always amazed by Iranian film makers risking their lives to tell a story important to them that they feel the rest of the world needs to hear, but I am also amazed at how good and professional most of these clandestine films look. The cinematographer of “Roya” is Ashkan Ashkani, one of the best cinematographers working in Iran today and certainly no stranger to making films in secret as he has made three films with Mohammad Rasoulof. “Roya” looks amazing from the beautiful outdoor scenes, to the creepy and off putting interiors of Roya's own house. Mohammadi and Ashkani use a lot of strange angles that help obscure certain objects in a frame, or have you question whether you saw what you think you saw. There are also a lot of repeated images throughout “Roya” that often reflect back to that opening sequence. An example of this is the button on the elevator being identical to the one Roya glimpses in prison. It is pretty unsettling seeing the same things in a different location or context, and makes you question what is really going on, which is the point of the film.

Melisa Sözen plays the titular role in “Roya” and she is absolutely outstanding, and through her heavy world weary eyes, you can feel the weight Roya is carrying from being in prison and the abuse she suffered while in there. Sözen is a Turkish actress most famous for her role in Nuri Bilge Ceylan's “Winter Sleep” (2014), which is the reason why Mohammadi cast Sözen after being so impressed by her in that film. The other reason why Mohammadi cast her as Roya was because she didn't want an Iranian actress risking her life for what is essentially just a movie. The majority of “Roya” actually sees the title character silent (she has been figuratively silenced by the regime) so most of her performance comes from her body language and eyes. Sözen's eyes are so expressive because they expose Roya's fear, confusion and anger. Something else worth mentioning because it is so rare in Iranian cinema, is the brief nudity form Sözen as she exits her shower and heads to her bedroom. It is a confusing scene because she initially gets dressed only to then remove pieces of clothing as she heads to her room, but I feel this relates to her feeling of literal nakedness when she was humiliated during strip searches while incarcerated, and in this moment it was Roya's attempt at taking back her own body.

As I have mentioned already, “Roya” has a dream-like structure with moments replayed and changed regularly so you never get a grasp of whats going on. The initial interrogation scene is also repeated towards the end of “Roya” although this time not from Roya's point of view, and it is interesting how there are subtle changes this time around, further signalling that Roya is an unreliable narrator, and that her memories may be flawed.

Overall, after re-reading this review, I am not sure I have done a very good job at describing what makes “Roya” so great and why I think it is so important a film. After an incredibly difficult, but necessary first ten minutes, director Mahnaz Mohammadi has created a film that puts you in the shoes of her protagonist once she is released from Evin prison; you find yourself confused and questioning everything. It is actually quite a heartbreaking film because you can sense Roya is a person destroyed from within and through all the torture and hardship she (and her family) have suffered while she was incarcerated, her torture is nowhere near over now that she has been released, and worse that she continually hates herself for being forced to go against her political beliefs so as to finally be released. What makes “Roya” truly special though is its non-traditional storytelling style, particularly in regards to films that come out of Iran. That said, because of the fractured nature of the narrative, “Roya” will not be for everyone, but I personally thought it was a very special film indeed.

4 Stars.

 

OF WOMB - MIFF 2026

 

As per the MIFF guide: “Three young women have been raised in innocence on a remote, dilapidated homestead, alone with their bed bound, intensely religious mother. Fuelled by a heady brew of existential terror, dogmatic belief and desire to dominate, The Eldest decides to hide Mother’s death from her siblings, telling them the Devil is lurking behind her closed bedroom door as sound and stench, ready to repay their curiosity with a terrible sickness. Among the paperbark trees, invented sacraments begin playfully but soon plunge the trio into a claustrophobic shared delirium, gasping towards a devastating collapse.”

Another micro-budgeted Aussie film to premiere at MIFF this year is the psychological horror film “Of Womb” from first time director Peter Firebrace. Watching the trailer for the film on the MIFF website, I was immediately entranced by its distinct visual style and what appeared to be a more than unusual narrative. So much so that “Of Womb” became one of the films I was really looking forward to at MIFF, hoping to find a hidden gem, or at the very least, an interesting and different horror film.

“Of Womb” is a kind of throwback to the psychological thrillers of the 1970's, that relied more on atmosphere and chills, than blood and gore. The film takes us into the world of a cult, and explores how repetition, ritual and power dynamics breed obedience. What is interesting though is we are witness to all of this through the lives of three sisters, who were brought up by their tough, domineering and very religious mother who, after she dies, sees the eldest girl keep the death of their mother a secret from her sisters, in a bid to claim the title of head honcho of the family for herself. Whilst it is initially fun and games between the three girls, when the youngest starts to question some of the eldest's increasingly cruel demands, it sets the sister's path towards doom.

As was indicated by the trailer for “Of Womb”, this is a stunning looking film with incredibly beautiful cinematography and particularly, production design. The house the girls live in is filled with dried flowers, lace curtains, mirrors and old vintage furniture, and the clothes they wear are often long, soft garments of light colours. With the beautiful soft lighting cinematographer Joe Henderson uses, “Of Womb” has a similar visual quality to Peter Weir's “Picnic at Hanging Rock” (1975) (which I consider the greatest Australian film ever made), and Sofia Coppola's “The Virgin Suicides” (1999). It ticks all the boxes, from a visual standpoint, of what I love in a film. I also have to mention the paperbark forest that exists just outside the property the girls live on and where they often engage in fun together. I honestly can not remember seeing anything like these trees before, and seeing them all together with the girls gleefully running between them, well it is a stunning image.

Director Peter Firebrace does an excellent job of creating an uneasy atmosphere which is done via the sound design and unconventional music of the film (which Firebrace himself composed). The weird songs/prayers/sacraments the girls perform daily also help with the atmosphere of “Of Womb”, as well as hint at the darkness hidden just underneath the surface. As mother is dead when we first meet her, we cannot truly know how strict or demonstrative she was towards her girls and their religious upbringing and thus cannot tell for sure if it is because of this upbringing that Eldest becomes so cruel, or if she is just evil inside. It is the age old debate of Nature vs Nurture. Initially, Eldest tells Middle and Youngest, that Mother is sick and must be left alone, as the Devil is behind her door ready to tempt them, and that she alone has been put in charge after being chosen by Mother. Her obedient sisters do not question any of this and continue life as normal, but now with Eldest in charge. It is not until Eldest is questioned and she feels her new found power threatened, that she begins giving her sisters increasingly mean and cruel “tests”, while pretending they are from Mother. What I found interesting about all of this is that the girls never questioned anything Mother told them, believing in it fully, and yet it is obvious when Eldest takes over, that she is making it up as she goes along, which should surely break the illusion of the cult and everything they previously believed in, so why do Middle and Youngest continue to follow Eldest's lead? At the very least, Eldest herself should understand the fraudulent nature of the cult, as she comes up with new trials, and sacraments on the fly, usually to the betterment of herself, but it surprises me that she does not start questioning everything that came before it when Mother was alive. As always, the person holding the power claims that everything they are doing is in the best interests of her sisters, but if they really stopped and thought about what was going on, they would see the opposite was true. As the film gets towards its end, Eldest comes up with some horrific “trials” and worse punishments, and this is where the horror of “Of Womb” comes from.

As I have mentioned already, I adore everything about “Of Womb” when it comes to a visual sense, and I also marvel at its sustained disturbing and unusual atmosphere created throughout. Where the film falls down is in the actual story, as I do not think there is enough story to sustain its entire running time. To fill out the time, Firebrace continually repeats the girls actions day after day, which is fine to give a sense of daily repetition and ritual, but it ends up becoming stale from a narrative point of view if nothing else is happening in between. Films like these, where not a lot happens but are very atmospheric, need to end on a great finale, essentially to reward the audience for their patience. I think the ending for “Of Womb” is good, do not get me wrong, it is just not the banger you want it to be. I am not sure what exactly, but it just needed something a little extra to knock the ending out of the park.

The three girls, Caillin Thompson, Ella Demarchi and Bailey Perrie, who play Eldest, Middle and Youngest respectively are all quite good in their roles and have a wonderful chemistry together, making it believable that they are sisters who grew up isolated from the rest of the world, but it is Thompson who steals the movie as the power hungry Eldest. Her natural beauty makes her look ethereal and heavenly, but the darkness behind her eyes expose the opposite. The way Thompson leans in and embraces this darkness, particularly towards the end is especially chilling. I also thought Perrie's wide-eyed performance as Youngest was also very impressive, as she is the most curious of the three girls. The one who is willing to discover the world for herself, rather than be told what is what and question things she doesn't fully understand, to the detriment of herself and her sister's well being.

Overall, “Of Womb” is an incredibly well made Aussie psychological horror film, shot on a tiny budget, but what little they had in money, they made up for with creativity. It is a stunningly beautiful film, with a chilling atmosphere, but does come up a little short in its story. It is definitely an interesting film, and well worth watching, and I think fans of 70's horror, in particular, should get a lot out of “Of Womb”.

3 Stars.

 

PARALLEL TALES - MIFF 2026

 

As per the MIFF guide: “Sylvie, a reclusive and irascible novelist living in squalor in Paris, struggles to get the creative juices flowing. To address this, she decides to train her telescope on the apartment across the street, where she spies two men and a woman fumbling around with sound recording equipment. Fascinated, she conjures up a melodramatic backstory for the threesome and starts typing. But when a stranger enters her orbit, the lines between fantasy, fabrication and fixation begin to blur.”

My most anticipated film of 2026 was Iranian director Asghar Farhadi's “Parallel Tales” which is his riff on Polish master filmmaker Krzysztof Kieślowski’s “A Short Film About Love”, although this is only one of a few inspirations behind his new film. His previous film, “A Hero” (2021), ended up being quite a controversial project for Farhadi, as it saw a former student of his, Azadeh Masihzadeh, sue him for plagiarism over a documentary idea she presented in class (and subsequently made), which she then accused Farhadi of stealing it's concept. Farhadi ended up winning the case, due to his film being fictional, whilst Masihzadeh's film was a real-life documentary; both films however were “based”on the same man, Mohammad Reza Shokri. Similar to Pedro Almodovar's “Bitter Christmas”, we have a story that talks about author's inspirations and how much they owe the real person that their imagined story is based on, if anything, which is a key theme also in “Parallel Tales”.

Sadly, it pains me to report that Asghar Farhadi's “Parallel Tales” was a massive disappointment, and for mine, is his worst film to date. My main issue with it was that I absolutely despised the character of Adam who is a spineless, selfish little worm that causes pain to everyone he interacts with. I cannot remember hating a character so much for a very long time, which turns out to be a problem when he is your film's main character. Because of Adam and his actions, I was immediately against the film, and despite the good that is in “Parallel Tales”, it was never enough to bring me back to enjoy the film. This was a massive shock to me because this is the first film from Farhadi that I haven't enjoyed. It was also the first film from him that didn't appear to have any social commentary attached to it either, making it feel less important. That is fine, as not every film has to have something to say or teach, but if you are going to just go for entertainment, you need your audience to at least relate (they do not have to like them) with your characters, and I just couldn't with Adam.

“Parallel Tales” exists in three layers of reality: imagination, remembrance and real life, and Sylvie, Isabelle Huppert's character, uses all three when writing her stories. Each night she spies on her neighbours ,who are sound recordists, while they work (real life), and comes up with her own relationships, dramas and dialogue between them (imagination), whilst adding a personal touch by using the memory of her mother's death as part of her story too (remembrance). Similar again to Almodovar's “Bitter Christmas”, we get to see Sylvie's story played out with Virginie Efira, Pierre Niney and Vincent Cassel playing the imagined roles as Sylvie is writing it. To differentiate from fact and fiction Virginie Efira's character in the novel has dark hair, while her “real life” character is blonde. This part of the film is actually pretty fun, and very cinematic, as it revolves around voyeurism and infidelity, and voyeurism is the basis of cinema itself (watching characters in personal moments). With hints of Hitchcock's “Rear Window”, “Parallel Tales” looks amazing too during this section of the film. Once the book is rejected by her publisher for being too old fashioned, Sylvie throws away her manuscript, only for Adam to claim it for himself, pretend he is the author of it, whilst doing everything in his power to first meet, and then get mixed up in the lives of the real people Sylvie based her book on. Through Adam's unstable eyes and sick mind, he struggles to tell the difference between fantasy and reality, and interprets the real life people to be just like the characters in the book, which is where the real drama of “Parallel Tales” begins. However it is also this point where the film starts to lose its footing and head towards the disappointment it turns out to be. Granted, it does deal with some interesting themes such as does real life inspire fiction or does fiction inspire real life, as well as looking at the weird phenomenon of fandom where some people get so involved in a story, they deem it to be more real than real life itself. I admit this is interesting stuff, but I just wish that these topics were explored in a better film, rather than the unsatisfactory and bloated “Parallel Tales”.

Outside of my extreme hate for the character of Adam, the biggest problem with “Parallel Tales”, ironically, is that it didn't feel believable nor that it reflected truth, especially when it comes to the characters actions or reactions, particularly those of the women. Adam is so innately creepy on his initial contact with Nita, that I cannot believe she would continue to give him the time of day, let alone not call the police. His actions are dangerous so treating him like he is harmless was not only a bad decision, but it also never rings true. The fact that he repeatedly makes contact with her and follows her, for Nita to do nothing makes no sense. I also found Isabelle Huppert's character, Sylvie, to be totally inert, even though the whole film revolves around something she wrote. Sylvie has no point in the film, even though, ironically, she is at the center of everything. However for the majority of “Parallel Tales” she potters around her unit preparing to move out; she doesn't change nor have a “character arc”, there is nothing to her. If the film existed without her character, with Adam finding a manuscript written by the previous owner, he found while cleaning his apartment, you would honestly not miss the character at all. Huppert's performance in the role, also is not one of her best. Speaking of pointless, do not get me started on Catherine Deneuve's cameo, who shows up for all of one scene as Sylvie's publisher, never to be seen again. It screamed of desperation and stunt casting, just so Deneuve's name could appear on the movie poster to attract more viewers (although she is quite good in the scene).

Something else that really frustrated me about “Parallel Tales” is none of the characters ever take ownership of their actions, or worse, are happy to look past or excuse other people's actions because it would make their life harder to do the right thing and call out or condemn the toxic behaviour. Due to spoilers, I cannot delve too deep into this point, but multiple characters do horrific things to others, and they all have an excuse for why they did it or have someone else back them up, claiming it wasn't that bad to begin with. That is why I loved when Nita finally says “enough”, stands up for herself and refuses to compromise her self worth to anyone, despite how difficult it will make her life going forward.

The best performance in “Parallel Tales” comes from Virginie Efira, who gets to play two roles, Nita and Anna, the character from Sylvie's novel that is based on Nita. Whilst Efira's performance is the best in “Parallel Tales”, it does not come close to the greatness of her performance in Ryusuke Hamaguchi's “All of a Sudden”, which I saw on the first day of MIFF this year. I think the reason for this has to do with Asghar Farhadi's script and his inability to present his characters in truthful situations. It isn't until near the end of the film when Efira really shines, and no surprise, this is when Nita finally acts how a woman in her position would really act.

Overall, Asghar Farhadi's latest film “Parallel Tales” turned out to be a massive disappointment, and for mine, is the worst film made yet from this super talented Iranian director, mainly due to the fact that his characters actions and reactions have no basis in reality. I read a review for the film recently where the reviewer made the quip that Farhadi had turned “A Short Film About Love” into a long film about nothing which, while harsh, is also pretty spot on. It is not all bad though as the film does look nice, particularly the scenes based on Sylvie's book, but voyeurism is inherently cinematic, and I did like the question explored in the film over whether real life influences fiction or does fiction influence real life, as the real life characters of “Parallel Tales” start to mirror the characters from Sylvie's book. In the end though, I could not find myself liking “Parallel Tales” due to the character of Adam, who I absolutely despised due to his slimy, selfish manner. “Parallel Tales” was my most anticipated film of 2026, so in that context, to say it was a disappointment is a serious understatement.

2.5 Stars.