Duet

Navid Danesh’s tightly conducted feature debut conveys the impact the past has on the present lives of its quartet of characters. Hamed is a musician who has recently released an album that includes a piece he wrote at university while involved with a woman named Sepideh. Their relationship ended badly, but he takes this opportunity to see his old girlfriend. The ensuing encounter sets off a chain of fraught conversations among the two former lovers and their current spouses. Though the title reflects Hamed’s college composition, it also points at the film’s technique of building emotional tension through a series of intense scenes between different pairings of the protagonists as they circle around their feelings and frustrations with one another. Everyone in the cast performs with impeccable timing, and fans of Iranian cinema will recognize the formidable Ali Mosaffa as Sepideh’s architect husband, Massoud. Building on the spare dramatic tradition of Iranian masters like Asghar Farhadi, Danesh has created a resonant and moving symphony for four voices. —Rod Armstrong