Asghar Farhadi

Asghar Farhadi is an Iranian film director and screenwriter whose dramas, including A Separation and The Salesman, explore moral conflict, social pressure, and unreliable knowledge.

A Separation: A 2011 Iranian drama directed by Asghar Farhadi about a couple’s separation and a dispute involving their caregiver. Its interlocking accounts of a domestic conflict established Farhadi’s international reputation.
Unreliable narrator: A narrator whose account cannot be accepted as fully accurate or trustworthy. Farhadi distributes unreliable knowledge among characters rather than relying on one deceptive narrator.
Leila Hatami: An Iranian actor known internationally for performances in films including A Separation. Her performance as Simin anchors the marital conflict at the center of A Separation.
Iranian cinema: The body of films produced in Iran, encompassing popular, documentary, and art-house traditions. Farhadi’s films draw on Iranian society while reaching audiences through international cinema.
Abbas Kiarostami: An Iranian filmmaker known for formally playful, often minimalist films that blur fiction and documentary. His minimalist ambiguity offers a contrasting route to uncertainty within Iranian cinema.
The Salesman: A 2016 Iranian drama directed by Asghar Farhadi, following a couple whose lives change after an assault. It extends his interest in dignity, retaliation, and the limits of certainty.
Dramatic irony: A situation in which an audience knows something that one or more characters do not. His scenes often make audiences judge choices with information unavailable to the characters making them.
Shahab Hosseini: An Iranian actor who won the Cannes Film Festival award for best actor for The Salesman. His role in The Salesman gives the film’s questions of injury and revenge a volatile center.
Iranian Revolution: The 1979 revolution that overthrew Iran’s monarchy and established the Islamic Republic. The post-revolutionary cultural order shaped the film industry and artistic constraints in which Farhadi works.
Jafar Panahi: An Iranian filmmaker whose work often addresses social restrictions and has been made under state-imposed constraints. Panahi’s direct engagement with censorship contrasts with Farhadi’s focus on ethical conflict within everyday relationships.

Linked from 3 pages

Cinema of IranRelated: His international awards brought renewed attention to contemporary Iranian narrative filmmaking.