Black Rabbit, White Rabbit (2025)

Shahram Mokri | Tajikistan, UAE | 2025 | 139 min | NC16 (Some Violence) A death in an antique shop activates a maze of possible worlds where actors, filmmakers and obsessions intertwine through cinema. A woman suspects her car accident was planned. A prop master fears the gun is real. A young woman seizes her chance to audition. Seemingly unrelated stories converge around the remake of a classic Iranian film, each unfolding into another truth, another illusion. In this film, Shahram Mokri adheres to Anton Chekhov’s principle that every element introduced must pay off – each detail turns into both promise and distraction, its meaning fractured across mirrored scenes, time loops, and reenactments. The continuous long take becomes a choreography of precision and misdirection, shaping what is seen and believed. Mokri exposes how cinema deceives by allowing it to perform its own paradox: sleight of hand and its undoing.