Histoires Parallèles
In search of inspiration for a new book, a writer (Isabelle Huppert) begins spying on her neighbours. A French-language film by Asghar Farhadi (A Separation, The Salesman), loosely inspired by the work of Krzysztof Kieślowski.
A writer entangled in creative crisis begins watching three neighbours across the street, inventing lives for them and transforming her observations into literature. Her assistant Adam, a young man with a difficult past, is slowly pulled into the game, until the tale mutates into a dangerous obsession.
Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s new film probes the artist’s right to appropriate real events and real people for creative ends. Is this theft, or simply an innocent game played in pursuit of a masterpiece? For Farhadi, these questions carry particular weight: his own cinema has often drawn from reality, and he himself has faced allegations of plagiarism.
Histoires Parallèles takes loose inspiration from Kieślowski’s A Short Film About Love, though devotees of his cinema will also catch echoes of other films from the Polish director. There is another unmistakable thread of continuity: Zbigniew Preisner composed the film’s score. (source: New Horizons Film Festival, adapted)