The Spell

A stirring mish-mash of cultural allusion, sledgehammer symbolism, and something approaching camp humour, if such a thing exists in modern Iran. It's an Old Dark House movie, in which a newly-wed peasant couple take shelter from the storm in a sinister palace. The young bride finds herself imprisoned with the master's wife, a pallid ghost who plots revenge on her tormentor, the hollow-cheeked servant who engineered her disappearance. The protracted agonies of revenge and reconciliation look exactly like late Strindberg; the high seriousness invites and allows laughs aplenty. Altogether surprising, and unexpectedly moving.