--- title: "Under the Shadow" year: 2016 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/under-the-shadow" fi1m_id: "under-the-shadow" imdb_id: "tt4273292" tmdb_id: 375012 wikidata_id: "Q23925023" fi1m_score: 80 critics_score: 81 critics_reviews: 23 published: "2026-09-27T08:18:36.177679+00:00" updated: "2026-09-27T08:18:37.255454+00:00" region: "HK" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Under the Shadow (2016) Directed by Babak Anvari · 1h 24m · Drama, Horror, War ## Identity Under the Shadow - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/under-the-shadow - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** under-the-shadow - **IMDb ID:** tt4273292 - **TMDB ID:** 375012 - **Wikidata ID:** Q23925023 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4273292/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/375012, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q23925023 **Fi1m score: 80** · Critics 81 from 23 reviews *In a sentence:* A ghost story in which the most frightening thing to come through the ceiling is the one that does not go off > Babak Anvari’s first film sets a haunting in a Tehran flat during the Iran–Iraq War, and the taped windows and sirens frighten as much as the djinn. Tight, well acted and properly unsettling, though the final stretch reaches for scares we have met before. ## Synopsis Tehran, 1988. Iraqi missiles are falling on the city, and Shideh (Narges Rashidi) has just been told, in an office at the medical school, that she will not be allowed to finish her degree; the politics she got up to as a student have caught up with her. Her husband Iraj (Bobby Naderi), a doctor, is posted to the front, leaving her in their flat with their daughter Dorsa (Avin Manshadi), a banned video recorder and a Jane Fonda workout tape. The neighbours pack up one by one. Then a missile comes through the roof, lodges in the Ebrahimis’ flat upstairs and fails to explode. Dorsa’s doll disappears, a small boy talks about djinn, and Shideh, who believes in none of it, has to decide whether to run or to stay. ## Review Babak Anvari wrote and directed his first feature, and it runs 84 minutes wasting few of them. It is a ghost story set in a Tehran flat in 1988, in the last year of the Iran–Iraq War, with missiles landing on the city. Shideh (Narges Rashidi) has lost her place at medical school and her husband Iraj (Bobby Naderi) to the front in the same week, and is left with their daughter Dorsa (Avin Manshadi) and something that may have come into the building with the bomb. We recommend it, with one caveat: after seventy minutes of avoiding the standard bag of scares, the last quarter of an hour reaches into it. Rashidi carries the film, and she does it by being angry rather than frightened. Shideh slams the car door on Iraj, exercises to a Jane Fonda tape on a video recorder she is not supposed to own, and treats the neighbours’ talk of djinn as one more thing said to her by people who think she should be at home. Nasser Zoubi’s production design gives her a flat of brown furniture and yellowed walls with tape crosses on every window, and Kit Fraser lights it with table lamps and the television’s glow, so the dark corners are dark corners for a long time. Phaedra Dahdaleh puts Shideh in a tracksuit indoors and a headscarf she resents at the front door. The moment that frightened us most is not supernatural. A missile comes through the roof and does not detonate. Anvari holds on a crack spreading across Shideh’s ceiling, then takes us upstairs to the Ebrahimis’ flat, where the thing has lodged in the floor and the neighbours are standing round it as though it were a piece of furniture nobody ordered. We were properly unsettled, and it was the ordinariness that did it: the dust, the wallpaper, a family who cannot leave because the building is all they have. Everything Anvari does afterwards with the djinn depends on that image. The djinn, when it comes, is mostly cloth: a sheet moving where there is no draught, a shape in a doorway that is either a woman covered head to foot or nothing at all. Gavin Cullen and Will McGillivray’s score is low and sparse and stays out of the raids, so the sirens and the distant thumps are the loudest sounds. Christopher Barwell cuts the haunting scenes long, letting us look at an empty hallway until we have decided nothing is there. The scene most critics single out, in which cloth wraps itself over Shideh’s face, deserves the attention. We could not breathe either. The film’s best scene has no ghost in it. Shideh ends up outside at night, dressed for her own front room rather than for the street, and the people who stop her are not spirits. We will say no more, except that Anvari lets it land without a speech. Elsewhere he is less patient. Twice Iraj rings from the front to tell Shideh she should be a better mother, and the film has already shown us what he is saying. A small boy staying with the Fakurs downstairs exists to explain djinn to Dorsa and to look sinister. Manshadi is good when Dorsa is sulking and less good when she is screaming, and the script gives her more of the second. The final stretch drops the wind and the cloth for things lunging out of the dark with a bang. They work, in the way a hand on the shoulder works. They are also the only part of the film that could have come from any other one. The comparison most critics reach for is [*The Babadook*](https://film.one/film/the-babadook), another film about a mother alone with a child and something in the house. What Anvari has that Jennifer Kent did not is the war, and he never lets it become wallpaper. Every scare is timed against a siren. It is in Farsi, with subtitles, and it earns its 15 certificate through dread rather than blood. Watch it at home, late, with the curtains drawn. It is a film about a flat, and it works in one. *Fi1m score 80, published 27 September 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is Under the Shadow worth watching?** *Under the Shadow* is worth watching for anyone who likes horror built on dread rather than blood, and we scored it 80. Babak Anvari's Tehran flat, with its taped windows and sirens, frightens as much as the djinn, and Narges Rashidi is angry rather than scared throughout. The last quarter of an hour reaches for scares we have met before. **How long is Under the Shadow, and what is it rated?** *Under the Shadow* runs 1h 24m. It is a drama and horror film. **Where can I watch Under the Shadow in Hong Kong?** *Under the Shadow* is streaming on Netflix in Hong Kong. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How violent or frightening is Under the Shadow, and is it suitable for children?** *Under the Shadow* is a 15 in the UK and earns it through dread rather than gore: an unexploded missile through a ceiling, cloth moving where there is no draught, a scene in which fabric wraps itself over a woman's face. There is little blood, but the sustained tension and the war make it unsuitable for children. Teenagers who can take slow-burning fear will manage it. **How does Under the Shadow compare to The Babadook?** *Under the Shadow* and [*The Babadook*](https://film.one/film/the-babadook) both put a mother alone in a house with a child and something else, but Anvari's film adds the Iran–Iraq War and times every scare against a siren, while Kent's makes grief itself the monster. We think the Iranian film is the tighter and less wearing of the two, though *The Babadook* gives its family more to feel. Both falter when the creature is finally shown. **What should I watch after Under the Shadow?** After *Under the Shadow*, try [*The Babadook*](https://film.one/film/the-babadook) (2014, Fi1m 86): Another mother, another child, another thing in the house; the grief is the monster. Then [*Repulsion*](https://film.one/film/repulsion) (1965, Fi1m 88): Polanski shuts a woman in a South Kensington flat and lets the walls misbehave. ### Reviews we read (23) - **IndieWire**, Eric Kohn (A-): Kohn calls the film a fresh and pointed horror movie, while noting that it eventually leans on familiar scares. He praises how its historical setting and social restrictions deepen the story’s supernatural terror. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/culture/sundance-review-under-the-shadow-is-the-first-great-horror-movie-of-the-year-32431/) - **Los Angeles Times**, Noel Murray (90/100, inferred): Murray calls the film a gripping, terrifying thriller that also examines a changing society. He praises how the heroine’s anxieties and Tehran’s setting deepen the supernatural horror. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-mini-under-shadow-review-20161001-snap-story.html) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, David Rooney (90/100, inferred): Rooney praises the film as a gripping, assured horror thriller with potent political undertones. He singles out Narges Rashdi’s riveting performance and Anvari’s sustained, stylish tension-building. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/under-shadow-sundance-review-858884/) - **RogerEbert.com**, Matt Zoller Seitz (3.5/4): Seitz gives the film a positive review, finding its horror effective and its setting essential to the tension. He especially praises how the supernatural threat works alongside the characters’ fear amid the Iran–Iraq War. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/under-the-shadow-2016) - **Empire**, Kim Newman (85/100, inferred): Newman calls it an outstanding slow-burn horror film and a quality ghost story. He praises its potent scares, strong performances and unusual Tehran setting. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/shadow-2-review/) - **The New Yorker** (85/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a gratifying, deeply unsettling horror story. They single out Rashidi’s commanding performance and the way wartime realities make the terror feel natural. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/under-the-shadow) - **Little White Lies**, David Jenkins (4/4/3): The review calls the film a mightily impressive debut, though it finds the plot formulaic and its feminist subtext too bluntly presented. It praises the lead performances and Anvari’s skill in creating an oppressive atmosphere within the apartment block. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/under-the-shadow) - **Radio Times**, Victoria Luxford (4/5): The review finds the film a refined, unnerving psychological horror that prioritizes drama over jump scares. It praises the way the story’s psychological depth and social oppression complement its creepiness. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-n46u67/under-the-shadow/) - **The Guardian**, Nigel M Smith (4/5): Smith praises the film as both a feminist critique and an effective horror, calling it a standout. He singles out its precise scares and magnificently intense climax. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/feb/05/under-the-shadow-review-feminist-horror-film-sundance-film-festival) - **Time Out**, Cath Clarke (4/5): The review calls it a smart, terrifying horror film and a candidate for the year’s best. It singles out its feminist perspective and scares for praise. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/under-the-shadow) - **Variety**, Justin Chang (80/100, inferred): Chang finds the film a tense, atmospheric horror story with a potent feminist core. He particularly praises Narges Rashidi’s performance and the inventive camera work that intensifies the apartment’s mounting terrors. [Read](https://variety.com/2016/film/festivals/under-the-shadow-review-sundance-1201686919/) - **The AV Club**, A.A. Dowd (B): Dowd finds the film’s blend of Iranian social drama and haunted-house horror exciting, though not especially frightening. He praises Narges Rashidi’s performance and the film’s pointed use of supernatural imagery to reflect cultural repression. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/under-the-shadow-is-a-babadook-for-war-torn-iran-1798189047) - **Slant Magazine**, Elise Nakhnikian (3/4): Nakhnikian finds the horror emotionally direct and effective in expressing women’s precarious position in 1980s Iran. She praises the chador scene that nearly suffocates Shideh as especially vivid and moving. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/under-the-shadow/) - **Screen Daily**, Wendy Ide, Senior international critic (64/100, inferred): The page identifies this as a Sundance review, but its verdict is unavailable. The accessible text does not reveal what the critic praised or criticized. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/under-the-shadow-sundance-review/5098912.article) - **The New York Times** (64/100, inferred): The page content is unavailable, so the critic’s verdict cannot be determined. No praise or complaint can be verified from the available text. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/07/movies/under-the-shadow-review.html) - **Den of Geek**, Sarah Dobbs (5/5): Dobbs calls the film intelligent, terrifying, and unmissable. She praises its claustrophobic atmosphere, built through the war setting, sound design, and strong performances from the mother and daughter leads. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/under-the-shadow-review/) - **Consequence**, Michael Roffman (90/100, inferred): Roffman calls the film a terrifying, purposeful ghost story and praises how its horror explores oppression, rebellion, and femininity. He singles out Narges Rashdi’s captivating performance and Anvari’s patient use of darkness and empty spaces. [Read](https://consequence.net/2016/10/sundance-film-review-under-the-shadow/) - **HeyUGuys** (85/100, inferred): The critic calls the film an assured, effective horror story, with only a couple of irritating jump scares. They praise Anvari’s patient direction and the growing sense of unease. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/under-the-shadow-review/) - **/Film**, Angie Han (8.0/10): Han praises the film as an effective, lingering horror tragedy, comparing its dread to The Babadook. She singles out its slow-building tension and the way the djinn embodies the everyday terrors of war and social oppression. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/542305/under-the-shadow-review/) - **NME** (80/100, inferred): The review finds the film’s blend of supernatural and wartime terror effective and its humanity universal. It praises the restrained glimpses of horror and the well-drawn characters. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/reviews-various-artists-16579-885275) - **Collider**, Matt Goldberg (B): Goldberg finds the film thoughtful and distinctive, with its horror rooted in women’s vulnerability and the pressures of war. He praises its cultural and emotional subtext, though he finds the supernatural scares reliant on jump scares. [Read](https://collider.com/under-the-shadow-review-more-terrifying-than-monsters-sundance-2016/) - **Paste**, Brogan Morris (7.5/10): Morris finds the film a politically charged, feminist horror drama that turns wartime claustrophobia into supernatural unease. He praises Narges Rashidi’s convincing portrayal of depression and Anvari’s precise, sparingly deployed scares. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/under-the-shadow/under-the-shadow) - **The Playlist** (64/100, inferred): The page is blocked, so the critic’s verdict cannot be established. No specific praise or complaint is available from the accessible text. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/shadow-finds-balance-introspective-terror-supernatural-intrigue-review-20161007/) ## Details - **Director:** Babak Anvari - **Director:** Babak Anvari - **Writer:** Babak Anvari - **Cinematography:** Kit Fraser - **Editor:** Christopher Barwell - **Music:** Gavin Cullen, Will McGillivray - **Production design:** Nasser Zoubi - **Costume design:** Phaedra Dahdaleh - **Producer:** Emily Leo, Oliver Roskill, Lucan Toh - **Cast:** Narges Rashidi as Shideh; Avin Manshadi as Dorsa; Bobby Naderi as Iraj; Ray Haratian as Mr. Ebrahimi; Hamid Djavadan as Mr. Fakur; Bijan Daneshmand as Director; Behi Djanati Atai as Pargol; Aram Ghasemy as Mrs. Ebrahimi - **Runtime:** 1h 24m - **Release (Hong Kong):** 26 May 2017 - **Genres:** Drama, Horror, War - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_ATX4C8Pmw ## Where to watch in Hong Kong - Netflix: streaming *Checked 2026-09-27.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, AZ, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, SK, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - International Submission to the Academy Awards 2017: International Submission to the Academy Awards (nominated) ## If you liked this - *The Babadook* (2014), Fi1m 86: Another mother, another child, another thing in the house; the grief is the monster — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-babadook.md) - *Dark Water* (2002): Nakata’s damp Tokyo flat, a custody battle and a stain on the ceiling that grows - *The Devil's Backbone* (2001): Del Toro’s orphanage ghost story with an unexploded bomb standing in the courtyard - *Repulsion* (1965), Fi1m 88: Polanski shuts a woman in a South Kensington flat and lets the walls misbehave — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/repulsion.md) - *A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night* (2014): A chador-wearing vampire prowls an Iranian ghost town; slower, stranger, in black and white --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/under-the-shadow