Generally speaking, Shahram Mokri's (at least) early films present a cinematic perspective on theater or, simply as he asserted in interviews, this is a second look at theater. So by Mokri you are, in fact, watching a theatrical performance and experiencing a closer narrative touch - than what cinema can normally provide - through a cinematic frame.

Concerning Invasion, several long takes, which I believe you rarely came across before, and a few nonstop story loops amaze you so much that you can't take your eyes off them. You are in effect given no time to analyze the information the scenes bombard you with in both visual and verbal forms. This could be both a blessing and a curse for the audience as you may fall behind the incoming events and facts when you are figuring out the outgoing. They are slippery as fish to grasp!

The performances are almost perfect to the point of being robotic. However, considering the necessities of the film, the cold robots come in handy and fit the atmosphere well.

To sum it up, the film is extremely engaging and somehow mind-boggling especially in the first encounter. So equip yourself with total focus and awareness to enjoy a distinctively intelligent film.

I can honestly say I've never seen another movie like this and it was absolutely astounding.

The sales copy for this describes it as "a science-fiction/detective/vampire story, with nods to stylized 1980s New Wave-era films like Liquid Sky" and yeah, that's almost as close as I can come to figuring out how to explain it to you.

At some time somewhere in the future, teams of tattooed athletes play a never explained sport in a foreboding and dangerous stadium where a murder has already taken place. The police have been trying to reconstruct the crime over and over again, using the vampiric twin sister of the married man in his place. There's also a way too long eclipse and a global pandemic happening all at the same time.

I mean, this movie also has the one shot technique of FIsh & Cat while also looking like a grimy 70s science fiction horror movie -- Thirst maybe? -- along with way too much fog and the red-eyed, face-tattooed and androgynous female vampire Negar gliding through all of this. Did Ali kill her brother, his best friend Saman? What's up with the way he poses in front of the mirror in the beginning? What's up with all those no gender mixing warning signs? Were Saman and Negar the same person when it comes down to it or were they really just switching lives and souls? How can an Iranian film made in 2017 feel so much like Jean Rollin or Jess Franco?

And most importantly, why did it take me so long to find this? Absolutely essential.

Apart from the fine score, and the astounding performance by the leading actor, there was not much to admire about this film.