The Salesman (2016)

Original Title

فروشنده‎ Forushande

Genre

Drama

Director

Asghar Farhadi

Country

Iran

Cast

Shahab Hosseini, Taraneh Alidoosti, Babak Karimi, Farid Sajadhosseini, Mina Sadati, Maral Bani Adam, Mehdi Koushki, Amad Emani, Shirin Aghakashi, Mojtaba Pirzadeh, Sahra Asadollahi, Ehteram Boroumand, Sam Valipour

Storyline

Forced to leave their house, Eman (Shahab Hosseini) and Rana (Taraneh Alidoosti) rent a new apartment, unaware of the fact that the previous tenant had been a woman of ill repute. By a nasty turn of events, Rana is assaulted by one of the woman's clients, and Eman becomes consumed with finding that man.

Opinion

I love Asghar Farhadi. He is a fantastic filmmaker and he portrays family dramas like few others. That said, I'm not that sure "The Salesman" deserved all those awards. It still is a solid drama, but it's far from being the greatest film from the Iranian director.

Back to the chaotic street of Tehran after the French "trip", Farhadi yet again delivers a compelling, engaging story that affects the lives of the members of several families. So, yeah, another story of families torn apart by the truth. 

Only this time he masquerades a quite complex revenge tale in this home drama. He compares the man who seeks revenge and wants to achieve it by humiliating the other and the woman who believes the biggest revenge is forgiveness. And he also shows that taking revenge isn't that easy after all.

Unfortunately, Farhadi did a couple things I didn't fully understand. Like the interplay between reality - the character's reality - and fiction - the play the characters are working on - that doesn't really add to the film; or the fact that towards the end the film looks more like a detective thriller than a home drama.

That said, we still have Farhadi's typically dark and deep characters wonderfully characterised and wonderfully portrayed by the cast, from Shahab Hosseini as the husband seeking revenge to Taraneh Alidoosti as the wife to Babak Karimi as the aggressor, the performances are truly great.