The popular Iranian-born actor Golshifteh Farahani is the latest addition to the cast of Arnaud Desplechin's upcoming project Brother and Sister. The current ensemble for the film includes Marion Cotillard and famed French actor/director Melvil Poupaud, famous for his roles in By the Grace of God and Laurence Anyways.

Arnaud Desplechin's upcoming Apple TV+ project follows the story of two siblings, played by Cotillard and Poupaud. The famed French director has gone on to be almost a staple at Cannes, and 11 out of his 12 films have screened at the prestigious festival so far. This year could see the César Award and the Louis Delluc Prize-winning director's 12th entry at Cannes, as he has confirmed that his new film will be ready by May.

Golshifteh Farahani is a Cesar Award-winning actress herself, an accolade she earned for her performance in The Patience Stone, the 2012 French-Afghan war drama film that was selected as the Afghan entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar. She also starred in Ridley Scott's Body of Lies, the spy thriller film where she starred opposite Leonardo DiCaprio.

Brother and Sister is, in a way, the companion piece to Desplechin's 2004 film Kings and Queen (according to the director himself), in the sense that both the films narrate two seemingly parallel stories that intersect each other significantly at the end. Kings and Queen had a novelistic tone as it told a pair of parallel and eventually intersecting stories via two wholly different registers.

On one side, you had one character living a melodrama, and the other in a slapstick, burlesque comedy... [This latest film] is a bit like its twin. One thread follows a brother (Poupaud), who no longer sees his sister, and one follows the sister (Cotillard), who no longer sees her brother. The film’s goal is to reunite them. -- Arnaud Desplechin

Brother and Sister follows the story of a pair of siblings, played by Marion Cotillard and Melvil Poupaud who, after a decade of shared silence, are forced to reunite after the death of their parents.

Golshifteh Farahani plays the role of Poupaud's spouse in the film. Desplechin shares his thoughts about the filming of the project:

It was an emotionally walloping shoot, because the tones the actors struck went far beyond anything I could have ever expected... I had no idea they would offer so much, and was overwhelmed by the intensity of their performances.

Although the film is currently in editing, the director has to fly to Senegal to shoot the epilogue, which he says is a good thing, as now he "can look at the images that were shot and figure out what the film itself calls for and what it requires.”