An internationally acclaimed Iranian director shot a film with celebrated French actors, but what deserves even more attention is the appearance of Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski’s name in the credits. Farhadi’s new film draws inspiration from Dekalog 6, Dekalog 5, and Blue, but the result lands somewhere between Rear Window and Monsieur Hire (the film adaptation of Simenon’s novel, referenced within the film itself). Where Kieslowski’s films, interpreting the Ten Commandments, used simple relationships to create profound parables, Farhadi plunges into a whirlpool of complicated relationships. He borrows only the premise of spying on a neighbor across the way through a telescope; instead of a story of true understanding and love, he devotes far more care to the film’s structural dimension and the equations governing human relationships. Taken from the title of the novel the writercharacter is working on, the film’s title evokes parallel worlds moving between reality and fiction, while also aptly describing failed relationships that remain on parallel tracks. (LEE Yong Cheol)