The Salesman

Asghar Farhadi’s The Salesman begins in chaos; the apartment building where Emad and Rana, married professional actors, live in begins to become unstable. Their building is evacuated in the middle of the night and soon the couple is forced to find a new place to live while preparing for the opening of their stage production of Death of a Salesman.

Emad (Shahab Hosseini) is a school instructor by day, and playing the role of Willy Loman by night. A fellow actor, Babak (Babak Karimi) manages an apartment building and secures a place for Emad and Rana (Taraneh Alidoosti) to move into. A roomful of the previous occupant’s belongings is locked; the woman who lived there has promised to return and take her belongings, but circumstances prevent her from doing so. It’s gradually revealed that she is a prostitute, who worked from home.

One night, Rana leaves the door of the apartment unlocked for Emad while she takes a shower. When Emad arrives home, Rana is gone and there’s blood on the stairs and in the bathroom. Neighbors have taken Rana to the hospital. She’s elusive about what occured and, out of shame, won’t make a police report. Emad increasingly feels powerless and angry, determined to track down the unknown intruder. The couple’s relationship deteriorates and Emad’s frustration spills out into his teaching and the Death of a Salesman production. He then finds the intruder left his cellphone behind.

Farhadi is one of the more fascinating writers/directors working today. His 2011 A Separation (also starring Hosseini), was a stark and compelling family drama, almost Bergmanesque in its unblinking portrayal of conflicts, misunderstandings, mixed emotions and familial responsibilities. The Salesman doesn’t reach its heights. Some of the film’s symbolism may be a bit too on the mark, but the story works as both a portrait of a couple and as a subtle critique of Iranian society and power structures in general; it’s compelling work, with superior acting on display. Special mention goes to Farid Sajadhosseini as an unnamed, old truck owner Emad tracks down and interrogates. The confrontation is palpable with dread and suspense.

Hossein Jafarian’s cinematography uses a subtle pallette, giving the apartment sequences a drab, blueish hue, while using bright red highlights for the stage production, a heightened version of what’s transpiring outside its walls.

The Salesman won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the Cannes Film Festival Awards for Best Screenplay and Best Actor (Shahab Hosseini). The Sony Pictures DVD features an interview with Farhadi about the construction of the screenplay. His most recent film, Everybody Knows, starring Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, has a scheduled February, 2019 US release, and sounds promising.

—Michael R. Neno, 2019 Jan 14