Cannes 2026: what is the new Asghar Farhadi, Parallel Stories worth? (critical)
The Iranian director revisits the sixth episode of Kieslowski’s Decalogue with a four-star cast, where Adam Bessa and Virginie Efira particularly shine
Based on an interview with one of his interpreters Vincent Cassel, we thought that the new Farhadi would deal with the Bataclan attacks. Wrongly: Parallel Stories actually revisits Kieslowski’s 6th Decalogue. But this false information resonates with what constitutes the DNA of this film: this permanent dialogue between reality and fiction. We follow a novelist who, in search of inspiration, spies on her neighbors across the street, a trio of foley artists for the cinema. She imagines them as husband, wife and lover without knowing what it is like in their “real” lives. And all this will not be without consequences when the young man hired to help her in her daily life becomes passionate about her manuscript and stalks the woman of the trio, triggering irreparable collateral damage.
Adam Bessa (The Ghosts) intensely portrays this deceptively gentle “vampire” who symbolizes everything the film expresses around creation and what we steal from others in the name of art. Farhadi is totally in his element throughout a story which, as usual, masterfully constantly challenges our certainties as spectators. At the heart of an impressive cast (Cassel but also Pierre Niney, Isabelle Huppert, Catherine Deneuve…) which allows another game between the actors they are and the characters they embody, Virginie Efira particularly seduces in an internalized register that she had not played since Revoir Paris which earned her a César.
By Asghar Farhadi. With Virginie Efira, Adam Bessa, Isabelle Huppert… Duration: 2h19. Released May 14, 2026
