The politically charged, spine-chilling debut from Iranian director Babak Anvari delivered a tense and atmospheric thriller set in a haunted Tehran apartment during the terrifying final days of the Iran-Iraq War.

Shideh (Narges Rashidi) is a woman with a lot on her mind. It's the waning days of the war, her husband has been called to the front, air raids are drawing perilously close to their apartment, and she's just been told she cannot continue her medical studies because of her past political activism. As she is left alone with her young daughter Dorsa (Avin Manshadi), Dorsa starts behaving very strangely indeed - leading Shideh to suspect that they've become the targets of a djinn - in Islamic tradition, a supernatural creature that can wreak harm on a person as long as it obtains something meaningful from them.

Blending period detail and social critique with a good old fashioned horror story (and not a drop of blood spilled), Anvari's brilliantly crafted a film is as smart as it is scary. A feminist ghost story that will have you jumping in your seat.

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