Asghar Farhadi is an amazing director. His 4 films are nominated for Oscar in a row. Amonth them, "A Separation" won the first Oscar and Golden globe to an Iranian movie. His direction style and making always impress me.

"The Salesman" is the story of a couple who move to a new apartment, unaware that it was occupied by a prostitute before them. A customer of the old tenant makes a visit to the apartment that makes the couples life upside down.

The husband is searching for the visitor for a revenge, but ends up in a sweet revenge story, or so called.

I was so impressed by the movie that I have no words to explain or describe it. Asghar Farhadi's free and candid type of visuals makes the movie more lively. Close ups make the drama more intense.

The movie is such an emotional drama that you don't want to miss.

A must watch. Highly recommended.

#KiduMovie

"Forushande" or "The Salesman" is an Iranian movie that premiered last year. It runs for slightly over two hours and was written and directed by Ashgar Farhadi, who has been among Iran's finest filmmakers for a long time now, even if it took until his Oscar win for the world to finally really pay him attention/tribute. For me, it's between him and Panahi who is the top filmmaker from this troubled country right now. As for the cast here, I cannot say I am familiar with anybody, but this is certainly my loss as they are all doing a pretty good job and interestingly enough, the probably biggest supporting actor in here is somebody who worked as an editor for a long time until he finally started acting in film. But the best performance here comes from Shahab Hosseini of course and if he wasn't already, he now is a definite part of the Iranian acting elite. Lets take a look at the story. A couple of artists move to a new apartment where a prostitute (interesting how they avoid using this word) lived in before and the result of a tragic coincidence is that a man suggests she still lives there and forces her to have sex with him. The money he left there afterward certainly implies that rape was never an intentional factor. So it is a crime where really nobody can be blamed. The open door, the previous tenant's background, the client's harshness, it all played together in a wrong-place wrong-time kind of scenario.

Rape sure is an important subject at the Academy Awards this year as Isabelle Huppert is a nominee and possible dark horse for the win for her performance as a rape victim in "Elle". And this Iranian movie here is in a similar position at the Best Foreign Language Film category at the Oscars. It is not the front runner, but there is definitely the option that it may cause an upset to the German entry as Huppert may cause to Stone. Now back to this one here: Shahab Hosseini is the heart and soul of the film and he is in basically every scene of these 120 minutes. He does a magnificent job and I hope this somehow gets him parts in Hollywood movies. If he wants to, that is. There is no denying he brings the talent to (co-)star in blockbuster films. As for the film itself, I think it was a good watch throughout, but it may get slightly overrated as a whole because of how impressive the last 30 minutes were, especially the first scene between Hosseini and Karimi, which was absolute edge-of-seat material. Sadly, there was an occasional length in the first 90 minutes, which is why I would describe this movie "only" as a good film overall, not a great film. I still believe it is more Oscar-worthy than Toni Erdmann, another good film that did not have the great moments this one here does.

Finally some more words on "The Salesman". I have not seen "Death of a Salesman" and I must say the theater parts did the least for me, maybe because these take away from the pure moments of interaction between the two protagonists, or maybe also because I had no idea why Farhadi chose "Death of a Salesman" as the play here. Maybe you need to have seen it to understand all the references in this film's plot. But even if you have not like myself, it is still a very tense, enjoyable (sounds not like the right word to be honest) watch in its entirety and Farhadi once again proves that he is a real master of family dramas right now, as good as it gets in depicting life and the way it changes when drastic events may destroy the harmony and everyday life. Highly recommended, for Hosseini's performance alone. And Farhadi's background also takes us into a country where we know very little about, so this insight into society and communities is informative on a level where you actually learn new aspects every scene.

Asghar Farhadi first came to my attention when "A Separation" got nominated for Best Foreign Language Film in early 2012. It won, and while accepting his Oscar, Farhadi reminded US citizens to view Iran as more than crazy ayatollahs. His latest movie, "Forushande" ("The Salesman" in English) also won that award. This movie focuses on a different topic, but still important. The main characters are a couple starring in a production of "Death of a Salesman". Forced out of their apartment due to an impending collapse, they move into an apartment secured by a fellow actor. But when the wife gets assaulted, a series of events gets set in motion.

The plot is intended to subtly mirror the plot of Arthur Miller's play, as cracks in the characters' lives begin to show. This is one movie that's all about subtlety. I highly recommend it. As for its Oscar win, the notable event was that Asghar Farhadi boycotted the ceremony to protest Donald Trump's Muslim ban, so he had astronaut Anousheh Ansari accept it in his stead. She read a letter from Farhadi condemning the Muslim ban. Of all the other submissions for the award, I've only seen "Desierto", which is also a good movie.