"...how beautifully fragile are we that so many things can take but a moment to alter who we are for forever?"
As we open to the stage being set through the moving facades and focused dim-lights of a half-furnished empty theatre (the dress-rehearsal of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" by the protagonists and friends), we soon cut towards the cacophony of evacuating a building - with its façade collapsing. Through such irony and chaos, we are introduced to Emad (Shahab Hosseini, "A Separation") and Rana (Taraneh Alidoosti, "About Elly") - a married couple in their 30s harbouring those collective dreams, who were picking up their household and securing a new apartment.
Little did they know that moving houses shall cost them a home. The new apartment had a shady history - the last dweller being an escort woman, who hurriedly left without her belongings citing issues with her clients. Then one ominous day, Rana alone in the new apartment is mistaken for her previous tenant and assaulted by an intruder. Though only physically hurt, she struggles terribly with her mental trauma which also got the better of Emad. Again, as they try picking up their lives while goofing up their parts in the play, they both knew that it would take time - but, only if time healed all wounds, esp. the ones given by the 'times' itself.
So, as Rana sets her foot down to avoid a revenge (and subsequent guilt) with the intruder (an old, rattled carpet-seller) Emad painfully complies by letting the man go with just a slap. Soon enough, they find him passing-out with a heart-attack surrounded by the unaware family of his own. Much like the Salesman who courted failures of his profession and personal life, Emad and Rana tried their hardest to reinstate the tranquillity of their marriage. In the aftermath, as the drained out couple sits for another pre-run make-up session, their eyes draw a blank semblance of ghosts of their shared grief.
The film carries "story-within-a-story" format (Miller's "...Salesman" and Farhadi's Emad and Rana) sharing the theme of the "abomination of living". Asghar Farhadi's treatment towards his pivotal middle-class Iranian life (familiarized in his first Academy Award-winning - "A Separation") retrospect through one's own misgivings and vulnerabilities is surprisingly inspiring.
Nevertheless, writer-director Asghar Farhadi builds up an innocent-seeming ambience and then, almost mercilessly, smashing it to smithereens. Still, this film isn't a usual tragedy; neither a completely unusual one. It does portray genuine apathy but doesn't drop to any deliberate pathos. Without overselling anything, "the Salesman", evokes some reassurance even while fighting a losing war.
This well-shot (Cinematography by Hossein Jafarian "About Elly") work is masterfully merged with one of the best screenplays of previous years, winning dual Cannes Awards ("Best Screenwriting" for Farhadi and "Best Actor" for Hosseini) and further acclaim by a second Oscar for "Best Foreign Language Film". In a sensitive global-political environment, it is a slight nod to the times that we live in where we may have to not just protect but nurture our families with utmost care for crafting a better future.
Heartbreaking and Remarkable! An 8.5/10.
- Samuel Decker Thomson
As we open to the stage being set through the moving facades and focused dim-lights of a half-furnished empty theatre (the dress-rehearsal of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" by the protagonists and friends), we soon cut towards the cacophony of evacuating a building - with its façade collapsing. Through such irony and chaos, we are introduced to Emad (Shahab Hosseini, "A Separation") and Rana (Taraneh Alidoosti, "About Elly") - a married couple in their 30s harbouring those collective dreams, who were picking up their household and securing a new apartment.
Little did they know that moving houses shall cost them a home. The new apartment had a shady history - the last dweller being an escort woman, who hurriedly left without her belongings citing issues with her clients. Then one ominous day, Rana alone in the new apartment is mistaken for her previous tenant and assaulted by an intruder. Though only physically hurt, she struggles terribly with her mental trauma which also got the better of Emad. Again, as they try picking up their lives while goofing up their parts in the play, they both knew that it would take time - but, only if time healed all wounds, esp. the ones given by the 'times' itself.
So, as Rana sets her foot down to avoid a revenge (and subsequent guilt) with the intruder (an old, rattled carpet-seller) Emad painfully complies by letting the man go with just a slap. Soon enough, they find him passing-out with a heart-attack surrounded by the unaware family of his own. Much like the Salesman who courted failures of his profession and personal life, Emad and Rana tried their hardest to reinstate the tranquillity of their marriage. In the aftermath, as the drained out couple sits for another pre-run make-up session, their eyes draw a blank semblance of ghosts of their shared grief.
The film carries "story-within-a-story" format (Miller's "...Salesman" and Farhadi's Emad and Rana) sharing the theme of the "abomination of living". Asghar Farhadi's treatment towards his pivotal middle-class Iranian life (familiarized in his first Academy Award-winning - "A Separation") retrospect through one's own misgivings and vulnerabilities is surprisingly inspiring.
Nevertheless, writer-director Asghar Farhadi builds up an innocent-seeming ambience and then, almost mercilessly, smashing it to smithereens. Still, this film isn't a usual tragedy; neither a completely unusual one. It does portray genuine apathy but doesn't drop to any deliberate pathos. Without overselling anything, "the Salesman", evokes some reassurance even while fighting a losing war.
This well-shot (Cinematography by Hossein Jafarian "About Elly") work is masterfully merged with one of the best screenplays of previous years, winning dual Cannes Awards ("Best Screenwriting" for Farhadi and "Best Actor" for Hosseini) and further acclaim by a second Oscar for "Best Foreign Language Film". In a sensitive global-political environment, it is a slight nod to the times that we live in where we may have to not just protect but nurture our families with utmost care for crafting a better future.
Heartbreaking and Remarkable! An 8.5/10.