Starring Narges Rashidi, Avin Manshadi, Bobby Naderi, Aram Ghasemy, Arash Marandi and Soussan Farrokhnia. Written and directed by Babak Anvari. Produced by Oliver Roskill, Lucan Toh, Donall McCusker and Khaled Haddad. A Wigwam Films production, in association with Creative Capital and MENA Film, supported by Doha Film institute.

In the 1980s, during the Iran-Iraq War, young mother Shideh (Narges Rashidi) must look after her daughter Dorsa (Avin Manshadi) alone when her doctor husband Iraj (Bobby Naderi) is assigned to work in a war zone.

Soon Shideh and Dorsa find themselves haunted by a creepy spectre. A neighbour claims that the entity is a djinn, which has been carried there on the unexploded Iraqi missile that has slammed into the top of their apartment block.

Produced by British film company Wigwam Films, this international coproduction (UK, Jordan, Qatar, Iran) expertly builds its atmosphere of unease, akin to a tale from M. R. James.

I liked the choice of locale – Tehran during the conflict between Iran and Iraq – which allowed us to watch a creepy story that featured interesting cultural details, such as the fact that women in this patriarchal society could be punished for not wearing a headscarf – and owning something as innocuous as a Jane Fonda workout videocassette was strictly prohibited.

The different cultural environment also means that we get to encounter a supernatural/folkloric being from another belief system, in this case a djinn. I love the idea that the djinn is snagged from the sky and brought down to earth via the intervention of a missile!  

The djinn spirit itself is fleetingly seen as an out-of-focus man, but mainly it is represented as a floating sheet (often resembling a chādor veil), as the stresses of the war build and Shideh is forced to confront the supernatural presence to save her daughter.

Well worth seeking out.