Instead, Rana tries to communicate the seriousness of what happened through her actions. Like Farhadi’s previous films, The Salesman consistently tries to show us the subtle difficulties Iranian women face in their day-to-day lives. Unlike the escapism offered in jaheli films, Farhadi wants us to know just how unsatisfactory and damaging such honour-obsessed displays of machismo really are. Like that film, The Salesman is gruesome to watch, and it was probably even more difficult to make. While visually, the Iranian auteur continues to impress and improve on his previous films, The Salesman is missing one key Farhadian ingredient: pacing.

Source: National Post February 01, 2017 20:11 UTC