Interview: Babak Anvari and Matthew Rhys on ‘Hallow Road’
What is first intriguing about Hallow Road is its promise on paper. A surprisingly short (80-minute) hybrid between family drama and psychological thriller set across just three locations. Directed by British-Iranian filmmaker Babak Anvari (Under the Shadow, Wounds), it stars Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) and Matthew Rhys (The Americans) as parents caught in the terrifying zone between rationality and emotion, as their teenage daughter Alice gives them a phone call set to turn their lives upside down.
The setup may sound minimalist, but Hallow Road trades on quiet power and memorable twists. “It’s a movie full of silences but they’re all earned,” Anvari tells us. “We wanted to make sure that from the moment it starts it really grabs the audience without exhausting them too much. So I think the runtime was perfect. Kind of like a roller coaster ride. Too much of a roller coaster ride makes you sick.”
As the film is about to be released in the UK this Friday, we sat with Babak Anvari and Matthew Rhys to discuss the themes and making of the film, as well as why viewers should stay in their seats for the end credits.
While the film is grounded in contemporary realism, its DNA is laced with fairytale inspirations. “When I read the script I was like: This is a parent’s worst nightmare and this is feeling more and more like a nightmare,” Anvari shares. “That’s why there are some fantastical elements. In classic fairytales like Sleeping Beauty, you have parents desperately trying to change the fate of their child. Sometimes the child brings that fate upon themselves.”
This clash between control and chaos also plays out through Alice, who at 18, teeters between innocence and autonomy. “Teenage years are a strange moment for anyone,” says Anvari. “You’re losing your innocence and entering adulthood. But you’re still not wise enough to be an adult.”
The film’s emotional core is powered by its intimate cast of three. Rhys, Pike, and Megan Ashley form a family unit whose cracks begin to show early and dangerously. “You always hope that you all get on, especially on projects of this kind,” Rhys says of his co-stars. “It was instantaneous with Rosamund and Megan. We had a week before shooting to rehearse, improvise, and just get to know each other. That was enormously beneficial for us.”
For Anvari, the trio was his ideal cast. “This was my dream cast, genuinely,” he said. “Megan was the last addition, and Matthew read with her.”
Rhys, himself a father, found deep resonance in the material. “I related to Frank immediately on the page,” he tells us. “To read every parent’s nightmare, I would absolutely respond emotionally and not rationally at all.” He also highlights the counterbalance Pike brought to the story. “Rosamund’s character is more rational, and that tension between emotional instinct and cool reason was such a compelling dynamic.”
Shot in just 17 days, Hallow Road had no room for missteps, but that constraint became a creative asset. “The 17 days went quickly,” Anvari admits. “It had so many moving elements.” One of the most notable moments was a continuous take of the entire script filmed on the first day of the shoot. “It was genuinely a warm-up,” he said. “But that also shaped the arc of the shoot.” Rhys echos that sentiment. “You never really have the opportunity to rehearse the whole movie and then do it in one take without pause. I remember thinking after doing it on the first day, ‘We’ve got so much time!’ and then realizing… maybe not so much.”
The shoot was also singular with its setting, as most of the film is shot in a car, with the parents debating what would be the best guidelines for their daughter on the other side of the phone call. Rhys mentions how good of a scene-partner Pike was for these: “Rosamund is just the type of actor who brings that work ethic of wanting to get it right. And if you’re both on the same track you’re both thriving to the same things and the chemistry just comes everywhere.”
Improvisation also played a key role in shaping the film’s emotional tone. One moment that made it to the final cut? “The whole opening sequence with the empty kitchen,” Anvari reveals. “That wasn’t in the script.”
The result is a chillingly effective sequence of a desolated kitchen, half-empty plates, and a charged silence that tells you everything without showing anything. It sets the anxious tone perfectly.
Hallow Road is not only a fresh cinematic experience in its form, but one that rewards patience and attention as well. The film invites viewers to question their own instincts about family, control, and protection. It’s a haunting journey that doesn’t rely on spectacle, but rather on performances and atmosphere.
As a final word of advice, don’t rush out of your seat when the credits roll. Stay. There’s something waiting in those final frames that might just reframe everything you have just seen.
Serving as a welcome new turn on intimate and character-driven storytelling, Hallow Road is a film that challenges its audience enough to leave some questions unanswered and up for them to figure out. It’s a quiet storm you’ll be thinking about long after the lights come up.
HALLOW ROAD is in UK and Irish cinemas now