THE SALESMAN
* * * * (Joyce)
* * * ½ (Don)
(Best foreign film)
This year’s Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, “The Salesman,” is about a Tehranian husband and wife who have a traumatic event in their lives. How they handle the event offers the American audience a close look into their different culture.
Rana and Emad are starring in the Iranian version of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman.” The play is carefully watched by the censors and is interesting to watch how bits of it are performed.
The couple is forced to abruptly move from their apartment when the building is close to collapsing. A fellow actor offers them temporary housing in one of his empty apartments, which had been occupied by a prostitute. Emad keeps that information from his wife.
Rana is alone and in the shower when a man enters the apartment. We do not see what happens, but she ends up in the hospital with a bloodied head. We do not know exactly what happened, and Rana is so traumatized she doesn’t want to talk about it or go to the police. Nor does she want to be left alone in the apartment.
Emad goes ballistic, acting as a detective to find out what happened and specifically who the man is.
For me, the movie dragged on a bit too long, but Joyce was especially fascinated by the subtle differences in the culture and how the men and the women react differently toward events and toward each other. We learn what actually happened as the man is identified in a tense, emotional final scene.
Rated PG-13 and for mature young people, who will learn how different cultures respond to each other. There are subtitles.