The Salesman (Forushande) (2017)
91%RT Audience Score: 84%
Awards & Nominations: Won 1 Oscar
13 wins & 27 nominations total
The Salesman takes an ambitiously complex look at thought-provoking themes, and the well-acted results prove another consistently absorbing entry in writer-director Asghar Farhadi’s distinguished filmography.
The Salesman is like a game of Jenga, where each piece represents a character’s actions and decisions, and the tower threatens to collapse at any moment. But instead of pulling out pieces, the film adds more weight and tension until the inevitable crash. It’s a slow burn that rewards patience with a powerful examination of morality, relationships, and the consequences of our choices. Plus, it’s a great reminder that dysfunctional families are universal, no matter where you are in the world.
Production Company(ies)
El Deseo Antena 3 Televisión Good Machine
Distributor
Cohen Media Group, Amazon Studios
Release Type
Theatrical, Theatrical (Limited)
Filming Location(s)
Tehran, Iran
MPAA / Certificate
Rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements and a brief bloody image
Year of Release
2016
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:D-Cinema 48kHz 5.1 Dolby Digital
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:2h 5m
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Language(s):Persian, English
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Country of origin:France, Iran, Qatar
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Jan 27, 2017 Limited
Release Date (Streaming): May 2, 2017
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
starring Shahab Hosseini, Taraneh Alidoosti, Babak Karimi, Farid Sajjadi Hosseini, Mina Sadati, Maral Bani Adam, directed by Asghar Farhadi, written by Asghar Farhadi, drama, PG-13, box office gross $3.4M, reviewed by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Namrata Joshi, Wendy Ide, Tara Brady, Ed Potton, Charlotte O’Sullivan, Brian Eggert, Leigh Monson, Dustin Chang, David Lamble, Steven Prokopy, Jorge Ignacio Castillo, Iranian cinema, complex themes, marriage, violence, tension, trauma, revenge, crime, morality, culture, tradition, class, patriarchy, censorship, Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman, Iranian society, dysfunctional families, nuanced, suspenseful, visual storytelling, haunting
Worldwide gross: $6,953,604
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $8,570,307
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,019
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 934,603
US/Canada gross: $2,402,067
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $2,960,544
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,941
US/Canada opening weekend: $71,078
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $87,604
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,984
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
Taraneh Alidoosti – Rana
Babak Karimi – Babak
Farid Sajjadi Hosseini – The Man
Mina Sadati – Sanam
Maral Bani Adam – Kati
Director(s)
Asghar Farhadi
Writer(s)
Asghar Farhadi
Producer(s)
Alexandre Mallet-Guy, Asghar Farhadi
Film Festivals
Cannes, Toronto
Awards & Nominations
Won 1 Oscar
13 wins & 27 nominations total
Academy Awards
Oscar Best Foreign Language Film of the Year Winners, Oscar Best International Feature Film Of The Year Winners, Oscar Winners
All Critics (197) | Top Critics (59) | Fresh (190) | Rotten (7)
The opening moments of The Salesman underscore Farhadi’s status as one of the great unsung visual stylists of contemporary cinema.
August 25, 2018
Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
The Blue Lenses
TOP CRITIC
Despite the specificity of modern-day Iran, The Salesman can transpire anywhere, any time. After all dysfunctional families, messy relationships and marriages on the verge of breakdown can’t be confined either by national boundaries or time zones.
July 12, 2018
Namrata Joshi
The Hindu
TOP CRITIC
There is perhaps no director more adept at capturing the unfolding stories of ordinary people when the drama of their lives runs away with them.
March 19, 2017 | Rating: 4/5
Wendy Ide
Observer (UK)
TOP CRITIC
It is drier than either of these predecessors… But this remains the work of a singular storyteller who conducts actors and coaxes narrative arcs as well as any living director.
March 17, 2017 | Rating: 4/5
Tara Brady
Irish Times
TOP CRITIC
[A] quietly provocative drama.
March 17, 2017 | Rating: 4/5
Ed Potton
Times (UK)
TOP CRITIC
It’s wellacted and full of low-key pain and humour (you would expect nothing less from the man behind A Separation, one of the most excruciatingly humane and nuanced films of the decade).
March 17, 2017 | Rating: 3/5
Charlotte O’Sullivan
London Evening Standard
TOP CRITIC
Farhadi’s moral puzzles do not end by passing judgment from a moralist perspective; they prompt us to search inward to assess the choices and behavior on display.
May 2, 2022 | Rating: 3.5/4
Brian Eggert
Deep Focus Review
…a film to be celebrated everywhere, particularly as an artifact of universal humanity in a time when American policy with regards to Iran is strained at best…
September 24, 2020 | Rating: 4/5
Leigh Monson
Substream Magazine
Deeply philosophical with human entanglements, culture, tradition, class and morality, The Salesman is a complex drama with a great narrative pull that is a richly rewarding experience.
July 17, 2020
Dustin Chang
ScreenAnarchy
While The Salesman mostly unfolds in the pressure cooker of Emad and Rana’s workspace home, there is a deft subplot in which we see Emad in his other role as a high school drama teacher.
June 8, 2020
David Lamble
Bay Area Reporter
As an unfiltered drama, the film works to perfection; as a crime story, the pacing and flow are so unlike what Western audiences are used to, it might seems strange and oddly constructed.
May 1, 2020
Steven Prokopy
Third Coast Review
The Salesman may challenge some preconceptions, without losing sight of the problems that still affect the country.
January 28, 2020 | Rating: 3.5/5
Jorge Ignacio Castillo
The Canadian Crew…
Plot
After their apartment is damaged, a young couple in Tehran must move into a new home, but a sudden eruption of violence linked to the previous tenant creates tension between them in The Salesman.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Shahab Hosseini’s performance in The Salesman earned him the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival.
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