Awards

Haunting in a manner that owes as much to the tangible dangers of its setting (Tehran during the Iran-Iraq conflict, circa 1988) as its supernatural and psychological elements, Under the Shadow is both a terrific film and a terrifically scary one. Galvanized by Narges Rashidi's performance as Shideh, a sympathetic, strong-willed mother desperate to protect her daughter from dark forces spiritual and political in nature, the 2016 Bucheon Choice Jury awards its Jury's Choice to writer-director Babak Anvari for elevating the art of horror with this atmospheric, sharply realized debut.

"The specter of terror is haunting us - invisible, ungraspable. Out of historic events arises a domestic fiction that connects outer and inner war, oscillating between the concrete and disturbing generality. "Evil spirits travel on the wind" it says at some point in this film, which attacks our perception and merges formal elements. Every moment hits home in this cinematic trip, from which you neither can nor will tear yourself away."

8th place.