Fireworks Wednesday (Chaharshanbe-soori) (2016)
92%RT Audience Score: 83%
Awards & Nominations: 7 wins & 8 nominations
Well-written and powerfully acted, Fireworks Wednesday gives audiences an early, assured glimpse of writer-director Asghar Farhadi’s emerging talent.
Fireworks Wednesday is a movie that will light up your night like a firework show! This Iranian drama about a marriage in crisis is so engrossing that you’ll feel like you’re right there in Tehran on the eve of the Muslim New Year. The characters are so well-developed that you’ll feel like you know them personally, and the revelations hit harder than a firework exploding in the sky. Plus, the radiant bride-to-be trying on her dress at the beginning is just the cherry on top of this explosive film. Don’t miss out on this masterpiece from director Asghar Farhadi!
Production Company(ies)
Jack Rollins & Charles H. Joffe Productions, Rollins-Joffe Productions,
Distributor
NA
Release Type
Theatrical, Theatrical (Limited)
Filming Location(s)
Tehran, Iran
MPAA / Certificate
Not Rated
Year of Release
2016
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby Digital
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:NA
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Language(s):Persian
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Country of origin:Iran
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Release date:Release Date (Streaming): Apr 22, 2008
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
Fireworks Wednesday, Drama, Persian, Asghar Farhadi, Mani Haghighi, Taraneh Alidoosti, Hedye Tehrani, Hamid Farokhnezhad, Pantea Bahram, directed by Asghar Farhadi, written by Asghar Farhadi and Mani Haghighi, reviewed by Roxana Hadadi, Tom Long, Andrea Gronvall, Peter Keough, Ann Hornaday, Matthew Lickona, Michael J Casey, Daniel Barnes, Glenn Heath Jr., Mae Abdulbaki, Kathy Fennessy, box office performance, budget, producer, MPAA rating, marriage, salon, affair, meddling, drama, character-driven, engrossing, human emotion, deception, frailty, social manners, jump cut, perspective, distrustful, time, space, talent, expressive, all-seeing eyes
Worldwide gross: $119,881
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $147,753
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,982
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 16,113
US/Canada gross: $90,519
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $111,565
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,653
US/Canada opening weekend: $6,132
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $7,558
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,758
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Hedye Tehrani – Mozhde Samiei
Hamid Farokhnezhad – Morteza
Pantea Bahram – Simin
Asghar Farhadi – Director
Asghar Farhadi – Screenwriter
Director(s)
Asghar Farhadi
Writer(s)
Asghar Farhadi, Mani Haghighi
Producer(s)
NA
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
7 wins & 8 nominations
Academy Awards
All Critics (45) | Top Critics (20) | Fresh (45)
It would be easy to write Fireworks Wednesday off as a melodrama, but Farhadi builds it so methodically and so intentionally, that you get a sense for every character, and every revelation hits harder than the last.
January 9, 2017 | Rating: 3.5/5
Roxana Hadadi
Punch Drunk Critics
TOP CRITIC
Farhadi manages to skirt the political and focus on human emotion, deception and frailty with such force that his setting and artistic restraints are rendered near irrelevant.
June 10, 2016 | Rating: A
Tom Long
Detroit News
TOP CRITIC
Tehran on the eve of the Muslim New Year provides the backdrop for this engrossing Iranian drama about a marriage in crisis.
April 28, 2016
Andrea Gronvall
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
[A] complex and magnificently acted melodrama …
April 28, 2016 | Rating: 3.5/4
Peter Keough
Boston Globe
TOP CRITIC
Mournful, enigmatic and compulsively engrossing, “Fireworks Wednesday” gives viewers a chance to watch a master at work – before he was acknowledged as a master.
April 28, 2016 | Rating: 3/4
Ann Hornaday
Washington Post
TOP CRITIC
Any time you get to see a radiant bride-to-be (Taraneh Alidoosti) try on her dress and admire her reflection at the outset, you know that bliss is in the crosshairs.
April 21, 2016 | Rating: 3/5
Matthew Lickona
San Diego Reader
TOP CRITIC
Farhadi paints a pained but balanced picture, one where social manners are the confining aspect.
August 4, 2021 | Rating: 3/5
Michael J. Casey
Michael J. Cinema
The maturity of the mise-en-scene and the quiet confidence of the storytelling indicate a major talent, one that would flower in later and better films.
April 12, 2019 | Rating: 3.5/5
Daniel Barnes
Dare Daniel
Fireworks Wednesday,.. stands out from Farhadi’s work in this sense, using the occasional jump cut and shift in perspective to create a distrustful sense of time and space.
August 23, 2018
Glenn Heath Jr.
San Diego CityBeat
“Fireworks Wednesday” brings an organic, sympathetic, and humanistic take on themes that have long been explored.
August 23, 2018 | Rating: 3.5/5
Mae Abdulbaki
Movies with Mae
Though surrounded by actors of talent, especially the women, [Taraneh ] Alidousti carries the film by way of her expressive, all-seeing eyes.
August 18, 2017
Kathy Fennessy
The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
Here’s a film directed by a relative newcomer, Asghar Farhadi, that feels just as fresh as films by his predecessors, yet it also turns slightly inward, getting a little closer to the more turbulent human emotions.
March 26, 2017 | Rating: 3.5/4
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid…
Plot
A housewife sends her housekeeper to spy on her husband at a local salon, but when the housekeeper ignores her instructions, her meddling may throw the couple even deeper into turmoil in Fireworks Wednesday.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Taraneh Alidoosti’s performance in Fireworks Wednesday is praised for carrying the film with her expressive, all-seeing eyes.
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