The Salesman (2016) Review

Like many Americans, I felt a mixture of disgust and disbelief when I heard about President Trump's Muslim ban. At first, though, I did not fully comprehend just how awful this executive order truly was. I guess with the near constant barrage of horrifying news, I had become somewhat sanitized to the many awful decisions the President has made since his inauguration. That is until I read an article stating how award-winning director Asghar Farhadi, who is Iranian, would be unable to attend The 89th Academy Awards, where his film,The Salesman, was nominated for Best Foreign Film. Seeing how this executive order actually affected the lives of other people filled me with a sense of political rage that I have never felt before in my entire life. I could not comprehend that one of the greatest directors of the decade would be unable to attend a ceremony for his own film, solely based on his nationality. Upon watching the film, I realized that not only should it win Best Foreign Film, but it rightfully deserves a nomination for Best Picture. Trust me, that is not an exaggeration.

The Salesman (Forushande in Persian) centers around the married couple of Emad Etasami (Shahab Hosseini) and his wife, Rana (Taraneh Alidootsi). Both Hosseini and Alidootsi have been featured heavily in Farhadi's previous films. Emad is a school teacher who also acts alongside his wife. The story of the couple is juxtaposed with their performance of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. In the beginning, Emad and Rana are forced to move out of their Tehran apartment, which is at risk of collapsing. Thanks to their friend, Babak, they quickly settle into a new apartment. In the apartment they find all of the personal belongings of the previous tenant, which serves as the catalyst for the trials the couple must endure throughout the rest of the film.

Up until this point, Emad and Rana are as loving a couple as they come. Emad is shown to be funny and patient, especially with his class, while Rana's personality is talkative, but also independent
. It continues like this until tragedy strikes. While Rana gets ready to take a shower, a buzz comes in from downstairs. Thinking it is her husband, she leaves the door open. This is when Farhadi's uncanny ability to create tension and drama out of thin air comes to fruition. The camera remains focused on the slightly open door as it swings gently in the breeze. While nothing sinister has happened yet, the stomach of every audience member drops, knowing full well what is about to happen. We then see Emad returning home to find blood splattered all over the bathroom. He runs to the hospital to see Rana in the middle of surgery, having just been attacked.

From here, the entire dynamic of the film shift. Rana refuses to go to the police, clearly traumatized from the ordeal. Emad then decides to take matters into his own hands, filled with a determination to find the person who committed this crime. Its this drive that destroys them both.

What makes this film beautiful is how subtly the personalities of both main characters change. What seemed like the quintessentially stable couple at first eventually find themselves struggling to find normalcy in their now chaotic lives. Farhadi balances the tension of Etasami's with their portrayal of the Lomans in Death of a Salesman. The two narratives often bleed into one another. The writing exudes a palpable tension that becomes inescapable when watching it. You feel every disappointment and heartbreak that the characters do, and therefore leave the theater with your soul feeling absolutely devastated.

This is the second of Farhadi's film to be nominated for Best Foreign Film; his seminal classic A Separation won the award in 2012. Despite this, it is still a grave injustice that he will be unable to attend the Oscars on February 26. Farhadi has now stated that he would not go, even if he could, as a protest against President Trump's ban. Taraneh Alidootsi has also said she will not attend the ceremonies in protest.

Farhadi and Hosseini both won at the Cannes Film Festival for Best Screenplay and Best Actor respectively. The spotlight cast on the film by the executive order might just be enough for it to win its Oscar nomination. However, even if the ban never happened, I do believe this movie would easily win. Not only that, I sincerely believe that The Salesman is of a higher quality than at least half of the movies nominated for Best Picture. The fact that this movie has subtitles should not prevent its inclusion among the greatest films of the year.