Leigh Paatsch explains why The Salesman’s Oscar was politically motivated and undeserved

REVIEW: National film critic Leigh Paatsch explains why The Salesman’s Academy Award was politically motivated and undeserved.

THE SALESMAN (M)

Director: Asghar Farhadi (A Separation)

Starring: Shahab Hoseini, Taraneh Alidoosti, Baba Karimi, Mina Sadaati.

Rating: 4 stars

Revenge leaves no receipts, just regrets

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A question mark remains over the recent Best Foreign Language Film Oscar win of The Salesman.

If only because the result was clearly politically motivated.

The movie’s acclaimed Iranian writer-director Asghar Farhadi (whose superb A Separation won the same category five years ago) refused to journey to the US in the run-up to the Oscars as a public protest against President Donald Trump’s contentious travel ban order.

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Shahab Hosseini (l) and Taraneh Alidoosti in a scene from The Salesman. Picture: AP

A vote by any Academy member for The Salesman became another form of public protest in itself.

However, while The Salesman was not the best film of this year’s nominees — the spellbinding German comedy Toni Erdmann should have won by a decisive margin — it remains an absorbingly intricate drama of rare intelligence and grace.

The setting is the Iranian capital of Tehran in the present day, where a married couple are preparing for their featured roles in an amateur theatrical production of the classic Arthur Miller play Death of a Salesman.

Emad (Shahab Hoseini) and his wife Rana (Taraneh Alidoosti) have recently been forced to move house. While settling into their new address, they notice the previous tenant appears to have vacated the premises with great haste.

The Salesman was a politically motivated choice for winner of The Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Word around the neighbourhood is that this mystery occupant was a woman who entertained male visitors at all times of the day and night.

Unfortunately for Emad and Rana, they are among the last to know their apartment was once a highly illegal house of ill repute.

Late one afternoon, a former client of the secret sex worker gains access to their home and viciously attacks Rana.

Unable to go to the police, Emad mounts his own investigation into the assault: not only to save the honour of his spouse, but also to dispense a punishment that will clear his own conflicted feelings about the incident.

The Salesman pays its way as a film.

As a filmmaker, Farhadi has long proven himself a master of exposing those things that people choose to keep hidden from each other, no matter how close they might be.

When compared to his finest works, this slow and studied affair takes longer than usual to complete its wide array of high-stakes emotional transactions.

However, by the time its riveting final act is complete, only the most ungrateful customers would feel The Salesman didn’t pay its way.

Originally published as Leigh Paatsch explains why The Salesman’s Oscar was politically motivated and undeserved