Duet [2017]: A claustrophobic tale of the investigation into the psyche of humans on account of a self-created doubt based on the past relationship.
Humans are subconsciously wired to be unpredictable. When it come to matters of love and relationship, we make ourselves vulnerable to a spectrum of emotions. It’s an ecstatic collision of an illusive perception that holds us together in love.
Writer-Director Navid Danesh’s debut film ‘Duet’ is a subtle, psychological investigation of both the sexes & their reaction to the discovery of their spouses’ past affair. The doubt, jealousy, unreciprocated love, and unrequited love are worse of all as it grills you emotionally to the extent that you surrender to despair, question your existence and shatters all the certainties.
“Duet” sharply mixes these emotions of love in this multilayered tensive drama that never ceases to ease. Navid Danesh layers the drama with the string of a long episodic scene while stripping each character to its true self under such dramatic tension that even a minuscule fluttering of individual’s emotions could cause grave damage to an individual(s) whose scar would be impossible to heal.
Hameed – a pianist -is married to Minoo, accidentally runs into his college time girlfriend Sepidah who was then part of his band as a violinist. Sepidah is married to a civil-engineer-Masoud. The whole episode of Hameed & Sepidah’s encounter in DVD Parlor is bittersweet. They flip the DVDs, they share the awkward silence, discuss memorable moments, and find excuses to talk, and beg for time to slow down. But it turns into a nerve-wracking scene when Minoo shows up in the DVD parlor. The three of them in the same scene feels like standing on the land mine which could explode any moment.
This leads to a chain of events that spiral out of control. The doubt plagues the mind of Masoud, and his erratic behavior creates the disorder in the life of Hameed & Minoo too. All the four characters are thrown into an emotional turmoil.Navid hit out of the park with the heart-wrenching anti-climax that will leave you exhausted emotionally.
Navid is a sharp director who never rushes from one scene to another. He let the scenes develop on its character’s conscience to the extent of them being tangible. He let the camera lurking on the characters, creating colossal restlessness and throws us into the muddling state. His camera stays static longer than expected, and it does more harm to an audience as it let us assimilate the situation and gradually crawls in our mind and convulse our heart.
Duet is not an easy watch, it has the nerve-racking screenplay that never ceases to ease. It keeps you on edge till the end credit rolls. But it is an important film that in a subtle manner acutely observes human behavior to the past relationship.
★★★★★
Duet Trailer (2016, Iran) Navid Danesh (English… by trailerfilm2016
