O Apartamento

Masterfully shot in Teheran, the film follows the ill fortunes of a theatrical married couple who, while rehearsing Miller's play Death of a Salesman, find themselves having to abandon their crumbling apartment and to seek alternative accommodation. The film is openly an allegory about social, urban and marital decay. But way beyond it, it is about the costs of masculine pride. By far more than a very good 'Iranian film', this is a superb statement about the unbearable consequences of trying to live up to codes of honour that centre on the female body. In my opinion, actress Taraneh Alidoosti is the hero of the film, both in her performance and in the role she occupies in the script. In contrast to appearances, she is the mover of everything that takes place in this fantastic film. A cinematic poem and a masterpiece in unfolding the twists of human psychology.

This is a true masterpiece, one of the best films of the year. Even though Farhadi's 'A Separation' is even better, this is a great display of storytelling and psychological understanding of the director. There are three elements that ought to be highlighted. 1) Without gimmicks and hyperboles it shows how a common man, with his natural strengths and flaws, gets his own moral code defied by the violence that exists in all societies but that in this case, touched his family. 2) The visual language. Again, it's subtle and straightforward, but its always at the right distance of the characters. 3) The counterpointing of Miller's play is marvelous! What happens to them in real life always affects the development of the play and the tensions backstage have a richness that takes the audience to a new level. A must-watch!!!

Gradually (highly recommended to read these two plays before watching this movie 1.Cow by Gholam Hossein Saedi and 2.Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller) The salesman is really breathtaking and it has all the familiar factor of Farhadi's movies with a big difference that there is not any sign of those open ends anymore and you associate with the main character of movie more than any time. The story is about a young couple (Emad and Rana) who are performing at Arthur Miller's play Death of a salesman. They have to move to another apartment because their apartment is going to collapse. This moving cause a serious issue in their life because of the old tenant. In the beginning of the film when Emad_ with brilliant performance by Shahab Hosseini_ and his students was reading Saedi's play Cow, one of his student asked him "Sir,How does a man become cow?" Emad answered: "gradually". This question and Emad's answer are the main theme of this movie. Farhadi has used some part of the play Death of a Salesman in his movie masterfully and he has chosen Emad for the Willy's role in order to show and emphasize how Emad gradually got far away from his family or even his wife just like willy. The last twenty minutes of film are really breathtaking and the spectators associate with Emad more than anytime and I think they regularly ask themselves "if I were him, what would I do?" The salesman is a story about revenge or with accurate express is a story about the motivation of revenge. This story like another Fahadi's movies occurs in a family and effects family members. After A separation and now with the salesman Farhadi can be considered as a great master in directing suspenseful family drama like Hitchcock.

The name of the film "Salesman" have 2 coincident meanings at the same word: one of the meaning is pertaining to the first role actor in theater who his occupation have to sales somethings in term of managing his life poorly and another meaning is affiliated with a woman (ex- tenant of the apartment) who sales her body in an inappropriate way for making money intentionally. In addition, aforementioned movie show us that taking revenge is not really easy when we imagine ourselves in that situation because if you are there instead of guilty person, maybe you act worse than him. What's more, Audience during watching these Sequences, face with a dilemma between forgiveness or revenge which this atmosphere is entirely fantastic and make us satisfied after watching this terrific film.

I love Iranian movies and the Separation is one of my favorites. Somehow with the Salesman it did not work out. The script is original but the story develops so slowly and drowns out. You do not feel the real drama and the true massage behind it. The director probably wanted to repeat his success using the same means as in the Separation but it lacks originality, something thrilling and insightful acting.