GET TICKETS NOW

is proud to partner with the prestigious American Film Institute

for the 12th year in a row in presenting all the Iranian films at the 2026

North American Premiere

Parallel Tales

(Histoires parallèles)

A Film by Asghar Farhadi

Starring Isabelle Huppert, Vincent Cassel

OCTOBER 25, 8:30PM

(Chinese 1 Theater)

Exclusive Farhang Discount Code: FarhangxAFI2026

Iranian auteur Asghar Farhadi reworks aspects of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s A SHORT FILM ABOUT LOVE and A SHORT FILM ABOUT KILLING into a metafictional maze, mixing voyeurism, deceit and illusion into a twisty tale of competitive fictions. Faded novelist and jaded recluse Sylvie (Isabelle Huppert) spies on the sound effects team working in the apartment studio across the street — Pierre (Vincent Cassel), his wife Nita (Virginie Efira) and his younger brother Christophe (Pierre Niney) — and pens a melodramatic love triangle based on her wild imaginings. Sylvie abandons the manuscript after her longtime editor Céline (Catherine Deneuve) rejects it, only for her ex-con hired hand Adam (Adam Bessa), to claim it from the rubbish and present it as his own work … to Nita, whom he befriends in a café. Later, Nita shares the manuscript with Pierre and Christophe, who dismiss it. But the tawdry tale still gets under their skin. Sylvie’s voyeurism fired her imagination to create this work of fiction, later abandoned by its author, but claimed by another, who, desperate for re-invention, claims he is its author. The story Sylvie writes is both rejected as worthless, and highly coveted; it’s dismissed as far-fetched, but also powerfully, almost magically, influential. After the real-life models find out about the fictional narrative based on them, they take offense, but nonetheless partially succumb to its narrative. PARALLEL TALES may be Farhadi’s most cerebral, and contrary, work: it’s reverent about creativity, but dubious about authorship, and aware that good ideas may be shunned while bad ideas can go viral. –Todd Hitchcock

This film is in French with English Subtitles.

Country: France, Belgium, Italy

Year: 2026

Director: Asghar Farhadi

Screenwriters: Asghar Farhadi, Saeed Farhadi

Producers: Alexandre Mallet-Guy, Asghar Farhadi, David Levine

Executive Producer: Yousra Filali

Director of Photography: Guillaume Deffontaines

Editor: Hayedeh Safiyari

Production Designer: Emmanuelle Duplay

Costume Designer: Khadija Zeggaï

Music: Zbigniew Preisner

Cast/Featuring: Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Vincent Cassel, Pierre Niney, Adam Bessa

Running Time: 139 minutes

Language: French

Asghar Farhadi is an Iranian director/screenwriter celebrated for A SEPARATION, ABOUT ELLY, THE SALESMAN, THE PAST and A HERO. A two-time Oscar® winner, he received Cannes’ Grand Prix for A HERO and Best Screenplay for THE SALESMAN. His latest film, PARALLEL TALES, premiered in Competition at Cannes 2026.