Desperate for inspiration as she faces eviction from her Paris apartment, a famous author named Sylvie (Isabelle Huppert) turns to a telescope, spying on the neighbors across the street who work inside a local sound design studio.
Sylvie begins spinning their private routines into a new novel. However, when she hires a mysterious young man named Adam (Adam Bessa) to help pack up her chaotic, manuscript-laden home and shares her voyeuristic habits with him, the boundary between creative fiction and messy reality begins to dangerously dissolve.
This intricate psychological drama works so compellingly because of director Asghar Farhadi’s masterful ability to construct tight moral mazes where no character remains entirely reliable. Parallel Tales delivers a sharp, meta-fictional meditation on surveillance, storytelling, and the heavy impact our imaginations can have on the real world.
Loose-fitting echoes of cinematic classics like Rear Window pulse through its tense, rain-slicked atmosphere, making it a gripping modern puzzle box.
Drama, Mystery, Thriller
France (French with English subtitles)
139 min
