Director Asghar Farhadi’s early film, made in Iran in 2006, is another tale of class divisions, fractured families and lies that spider outward like cracks in a windshield. The title refers to the holiday just before the Persian New Year, and events unfold to the constant sound of firecracker pops and whistles. Young Rouhi (Taraneh Alidoosti) arrives to clean for Morteza (Hamid Farokhnezhad) and his wife, Mojdeh (Hediyeh Tehrani), and finds real chaos: Mojdeh believes her husband is having an affair with a neighbor (Pantea Bahram). Farhadi brings keen discernment to this unraveling marriage, and a third-act revelation packs a wallop. While not as brilliant as his 2012 Oscar-winning “A Separation” or 2009’s “About Elly,” the film has the same qualities of compassion and suspense that have made Farhadi one of the world’s most acclaimed directors.
↧