The Salesman

— This is an excellent film that looks at a complicated relationship stressed to a point of near breaking. Emad is a high school literature teacher who’s loved and respected by his students. He and his wife, Rana, are also actors, playing the roles of the worn out Willy Loman and his dispirited wife, Linda, in "Death of a Salesman". An earthquake causes cracks to form on their bedroom walls and forces them to quickly move to a new apartment. Unbeknownst to them until they have moved, the apartment had previously been rented by a prostitute. One night Rana buzzes someone she thinks is Emad in, and leaves the door ajar thinking he's on his way up the stairs, but a stranger enters the apartment instead, believing the previous tenant is still there and ends up assaulting Rana. Other people in the building find her and get her to a clinic. Emad feels guilt and rage and pity. He wants to report the assault but Rana, now nervous and frightened, wants nothing to do with the Tehran Police. The tension builds as Emad works to find the assailant himself while Rana tries to put it behind her. As the couple tries to hold it together before an audience on stage, their relationship is unwinding in private. When the assailant is identified, Emad, now blinded by revenge, want to humiliate him in front of his wife and children. We see Emad’s worst side and the assailant somehow seems more human. The line blur and everything is ambiguous. It’s a complex story and the loose parallels with Arthur Miller’s characters work well. In the end, Rana’s assailant is a sort of Willy himself and the audience’s sympathies have shifted. There’s not much to fault with this wonderful script, great direction and acting, and beautiful camerawork, making it easy for us to see the domino effect of one action.

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[2016. 124 min. Directed by Asghar Farhadi. Starring Taraneh Alidoosti, Shahab Hosseini, and Babak Karimi.]
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-salesman-2017