To
pursue professional and artistic goals, Iranian often have to go abroad
(assuming they have the money and connections). The process of expatriation and
repatriation, the coming and going, leads to uncertainty in personal
relationships. Sometimes reunions are joyous and sometimes they are awkward. When
Hamed the composer encounters his old flame, it will be exceedingly distressing
for all involved in Navid Danesh’s Duet (trailer here), which screens
during the 2017 San Francisco International Film Festival.
Hamed
has been back a year, but he is only now seeing Sepideh, thanks to a tip from
their old mutual college crony, Kaveh. While studying in Paris, Hamed met
Minoo, whom he married after their return. Following graduation, Sepideh broke
with her former mates, eventually marrying Massoud, who largely kept in contact
with his college friends. Tragedy has recently struck his tight knit social
circle, complicating Massoud’s reactions when he deduces Sepideh has seen a man
from her past.
He
has one particularly significant clue: a demo recording Hamed cut shortly
before his departure, which Sepideh often listens to when she is in a pensive
mood. It was meant to be a piano-cello duet, but he arranged it as a piano solo
for his study abroad application. That seems rather symbolic, doesn’t it?
Right
now, Iranian cinema has a major comparative advantage in brutally honest
domestic dramas. You couldn’t make a film like Ordinary People in Hollywood today, yet it looks rather shallow
when compared to recent Iranian releases like The Salesman, The Risk of Acid Rain, Nahid, and Melbourne.
Like the best of Asghar Farhadi’s films, Danesh derives suspense from
interpersonal turmoil rather than genre situations. It is a tense,
uncomfortably intimate film. Granted, Danesh sort of belly-flops with a flat,
anti-climactic ending, but the quality of the fab five principal cast-members
is so strong, we can forgive its flaws.
As
Massoud, Ali Mosaffa truly puts on a masterclass for screen acting. Over and
over, he demonstrates the power of suggestion, while guarding his character’s
secrets. Negar Javaherian’s performance as Sepideh is raw and honest, but
Hedieh Tehrani really lowers the boom as Minoo. Morteza Farshbaf (better known
as a director) hits the right notes as Hamed, the sad-eyed sad sack, but Kaveh
Kateb really makes the film as his well-meaning but increasing remorseful namesake.