Saw this at the Imagine film festival 2023 in Amsterdam. An interesting setup, where relational issues are intended to be more important than the SciFi/Mystery elements, coming about by two identical men and two identical women, all four living in Tehran within a few miles of each other. In such a large, crowded city their resemblance can and will remain hidden for a long time. Until a chance encounter, changing everything.
So far so good. However, the story at hand extends this idea a giant step further by introducing two equally looking married couples. It stretches my imagination far beyond believability. Apart from that, there could have been given more attention to their respective differences.
I think that the filmmakers also wanted to tell us something about the patrimonial society that Iran is. This mission has limited success. We observe differences between the two households when looking at the hierarchical distance between husband and wife, but it is something that we must read between the lines. It easily gets hidden under the hood, as the other plot elements attract much more attention than political and social aspects.
Earlier this year I saw Superposition (Karoline Lyngbye 2023), also presenting two identical couples who meet each other and interact, yet for the remainder both stories differ on all counts, bringing totally different complications and developments. Both film plots are surreal and are difficult to get your head around when thinking about it. In the case of Superposition, I had the idea that the setup was therapeutical for one of the couples who needed that, otherwise their relationship threatened to get stranded.
In the case of Subtraction, however, I was at a loss about purpose, morale and message, if any. I scored 4/5 for the audience award when leaving the venue. In other words, well-made but missing a few chances to exploit the plot better.
