A young couple starring in a performance of Arthur Miller's “Death of a Salesman,” find their real life relationship in turmoil in Director Asghar Farhadi’s The Salesman.
In Farhadi’s French/Iranian co-production, a young couple named Rana and Emad are forced to leave their home due to its imminent collapse. They rent a new apartment from one of their fellow performers in a local theater performance of “Death of a Salesman,” unaware that the previous tenant used the location to entertain her illicit clients. A visit by one of the previous tenant’s clients one night while Rana is home alone, transforms their once peaceful life into a drama that rivals that of the play in which they’re performing.
The Salesman won Best Actor and Best Screenplay at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for the Palme d’Or.
At the Eastern Region Special Projects Committee's Global Cinema Series screening in New York on November 15, Committee member Gary Donatelli introduced the film and Farhadi discussed the challenges of making The Salesman in a conversation moderated by Director Tom McCarthy (Spotlight). Farhadi had previously spoke about the film in a conversation moderated by Global Cinema subcommittee Chair Victoria Hochberg (The Chris Isaak Show) following the Special Projects Committee’s Global Cinema Series screening in the DGA Theater in Los Angeles on September 15.
Farhadi’s other films include the features Dancing in the Dust, Beautiful City, Fireworks Wednesday, About Elly, The Past, and the 2012 Academy Award Best Foreign Language Film winner, A Separation.
You can listen to Farhadi's Q&A by clicking the podcast episode embedded below. You can find all DGA podcast episodes here.