Directed by Ashgar Farhadi
Iran/France | Farsi w/ English subtitles | Fiction | 2016 | 125 min
Film Source: Cohen Media
Showtime: Wednesday, October 26 | 3:45 p.m. | FH
Awards: Iran’s official submission to the 2016 Academy Awards
Ashgar Farhadi’s unnerving pre-credit and opening scenes set the tone for this masterful narrative of a middle-class couple. Emad and Rana, during the course of rehearsals for Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, undergo traumatic events that cause cracks in their relationship — just like the cracks in the Tehran apartment building they live in. Farhadi, the lauded writer-director of the Oscar-winning 2011 film A Separation, keeps us on our toes in this drama that’s part revenge thriller and part psychoanalysis of trauma. After Rana is attacked in the shower one night, Emad pours his anger on the unknown attacker. But Rana refuses to go to the police. Does Emad’s desire for revenge help Rana overcome the effects of this traumatic event, or does his lack of understanding for what she has to endure make things worse? The tension mounts incrementally as he seeks clues to the identity of the attacker and we are left with questions about the role of mercy and vengeance. ~OY
Also Showing: Saturday, October 29 | 8:15 p.m. | BB
