Annual Top Films Lists

Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2016: #23. Asghar Farhadi’s The Salesman

Published on January 12, 2016

The Salesman

Director: Asghar Farhadi
Writer: Asghar Farhadi

Another Iranian auteur who recently dipped out of his native country is Asghar Farhadi, whose 2013 title The Past won French actress Berenice Bejo a Best Actress award at Cannes. Following 2011’s A Seperation (which won Berlin’s Golden Bear, plus a Golden Globe and Oscar in the US), Farhadi’s become a highly sought auteur, and it resulted in his 2008 film About Elly finally receiving distribution in the US, where it hit theaters in 2015. He’s got several irons in the fire, including an Almodovar produced Spanish project on deck for a possible 2017 release. But first, Farhadi returns to Iran for The Salesman (also previously referred to as Seller and Deliver it to Ahoo), starring Shaheib Hosseint and Taraneh Alidootsi (both previously having starred in About Elly, Fireworks Wednesday, and A Separation. Supposedly, the film revolves around a couple performing Arthur Miller’s famed play Death of a Salesman.

Cast: Shahab Hosseini, Taraneh Alidootsi.

Production Co./Producer(s): NA

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. TBD (domestic) TBD (international).

Release Date: Shooting was slated to begin mid-November, so depending on the scale Farhadi may be showing up again at Cannes.

Nicholas Bell

Los Angeles based Nicholas Bell is IONCINEMA.com's Chief Film Critic and covers film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and TIFF. He is part of the critic groups on Rotten Tomatoes, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and GALECA. His top 3 for 2021: France (Bruno Dumont), Passing (Rebecca Hall) and Nightmare Alley (Guillermo Del Toro). He was a jury member at the 2019 Cleveland International Film Festival.