Contributed
The Vernon Film Society will bring The Salesman, this year’s Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film, to the Towne Cinema on May 1.
Director Asghar Farhadi brings Vernon audiences a tale of simmering tension between a husband and wife. With their Tehran apartment block on the brink of collapse, Emad (Shahab Hosseini) and Rana (Taraneh Alidoosti) are obliged to move into a shabby flat nearby. Almost immediately, an unfriendly visitor comes calling, bringing violence to their new home.
From that point on, the atmosphere turns strangely tense. Feeling vengeful and confused, Emad plays detective, while rattled Rana gives him mysteriously mixed signals.
Meanwhile, the two are performing the roles of Willy and Linda Loman in an amateur production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, and their onstage roles begin to resonate with their fractured lives at home.
Director Farhadi rose to prominence after his film A Separation became the first Iranian film to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2011. He is well-known for his gift for bringing nuanced performances from his actors, while his scripts draw us in, turning the screws, and leaving us breathless.
“Farhadi remains a master of pace and tension, slowly upping the stakes in an unsettling narrative fueled by a lingering sense of powerlessness, paranoia, and the possibility that you never entirely know the person you love.” — Allan Hunter, Screen International
The Salesman will screen May 1 at the Towne Theatre at the regular times of 5:15 and 7:45 p.m. Tickets are available one week ahead at the Towne Theatre and the Bean Scene for $7. Cash only. Rated PG for coarse language and violence.