La fête du feu

Chaharshanbe-soori (2006) was shown in the U.S. with the title "Fireworks Wednesday. It was written and directed by Asghar Farhadi.

This movie really has two plots. One plot line involves a young working class woman who who will be married in a week. She starts work at the apartment of a wealthy family. Just a few minutes into the plot we realize that this is a dysfunctional family. The husband has flown into a rage and smashed a window with his fist. (He has a bandage in his hand throughout the movie.) The wife suspects that her husband is having an affair. She enlists the young maid to spy for her.

The relationship between the wife and the husband is the second plot line. Is the husband truly having an affair, or is this a neurotic obsession on the part of the wife?

(There's a third subplot about a man who parks his car just outside the gates of the apartment. He appears friendly enough, but I could never figure out what he was doing there. Probably everyone who saw the movie in Iran understood perfectly well what was happening. I couldn't get it. Even so, two solid plots are plenty for one movie.)

The reason the movie is called "Fireworks Wednesday" is because it's the Persian New Year, and everyone is shooting off fireworks. Fireworks are everywhere. I've never been to a movie--including war movies--with so many explosions in it. After a while, your brain partly shuts out the sound, but it's always there.

This is a powerful, dramatic, well-acted film. Although it's a drama, there are many funny moments. For example, the young outside worker and the older woman who works as concierge bond immediately. They'll never be in the upper class, but that doesn't mean they can't laugh at the weird rich people for whom they work.

The two female leads in the movie are extraordinarily talented. Hedye Tehrani plays the wife & Taraneh Alidoosti plays the domestic worker.

We saw this movie at home on the small screen, and it worked very well. It has a very high IMDb rating of 7.8, so I'm not alone in my admiration of it.

If you like unusual, interesting foreign films, with great direction and great acting, find this movie and enjoy it!

With gripping, tightly structured screenplay covering themes of marriage, lies, deception, and infidelity, superbly shot and brilliantly directed with so much depth and nuances to bring out the most impressive performances out of its cast, 'Fireworks Wednesday' is another testament of Asghar Farhadi as a master of story-telling.

Another gem of a portrait, Fireworks Wednesday is a effective & impressive domestic drama which remains to be Asghar Farhadi's underrated masterpiece. Featuring a gripping plot that gets better as the story progresses, tightly structured screenplay, captivating performances from its cast & tight editing, Asghar Farhadi creates an amazing picture. Covering themes of lies, deception, marriage & infidelity from the eyes of an engaged young woman, while also keeping its narration perfectly stable by finding a fine balance between its suspense, mystery & drama, Fireworks Wednesday is a faith-shattering cinema that's powerful and thoroughly recommended.

It's the last Wednesday of the Iranian new year and in the old Persian tradition kids and adults alike take to fireworks in the streets. Meanwhile in a block of apartments all forms of human emotions are on display. Mojdeh suspects that her husband is having an affair with the hairdresser in the flat next door. She feels cheated and isolated and on the eve of their departure to another country, she is having a total breakdown. A young girl who, on the eve of her marriage, has come to earn some money by house cleaning in Mojde's flat, becomes a pawn in a game of love and hate, truth and deception between all the involved parties.

Chaharshanbe-soori is destined to be known as another turning point in the history of Iranian cinema. Seldom have such adult themes been treated with such depth and by acting of a quality rarely seen in Iranian movies. All the main actors here are simply magnificent. Hedyeh Tehrani has never been better. Direction, script, camera work and editing are all world class. Chaharshanbe-soori nabbed four "Iranian Oscar" awards for best director, actress, editing and audience award; as well winning the best film prize at Chicago International Film festival and Tribeca Film Festival. It's one of those movies that crawls under your skin and stays in the memory long after the movie is over.

This film by Iranian director Asghar Farhadi (A Separation, About Elly) is well made, though in my opinion he has done better. There are elements in this movie you see in other films of the director: heated marital discussions, secrets and lies coming to the light, cultural differences between the middle class and the working class. However, the end result is not as compelling as in other of his movies.

The action transpires on a single day in Tehran during the celebration of the Iranian new year (a holiday where a lot of fireworks are thrown). The young Rouhi (played by the pretty and talented Taraneeh Alidosti, who was in About Elly), is a working class woman that will soon marry her boyfriend. She gets a temporary job cleaning a apartment in a middle class neighborhood. Upon arriving at the apartment she finds herself in the middle of a heated domestic dispute between Mojdeh and Morteza. Mojdeh (Heyde Tehrani, who's great) suspects that her husband Morteza is cheating on her with the next door neighbor Simin, a woman who set up a beauty salon there after her own marriage broke up. Over the course of the day, Rouhi, the fighting couple, their small son, the wife's sister and husband, and the beautician engage in a series of exchanges and confrontations, as the truth unfolds.

Of course, the central conceit of the film, that the residents of the apartment complex would trust this cleaning lady they barely know so much they would confide to her all their problems, is absurd. At one point, Mojdeh even asks Rouhi to pick her young son at school (she has only known her for a few hours, and already trusts her to fetch her son, whom Rouhi has never met!)

Not knowing much about Iranian culture, I was intrigued by the relationship between Rouhi and her boyfriend. I suppose Iran being a culturally conservative country their relationship before marriage is non sexual, yet they seem so close and loving, especially at the opening scenes of the movie. But the movie doesn't dwell too much in this, a pity since you don't see much about young love in Iranian movies.