The Salesman (2016)

There's a moment near the end of The Salesman where the tension that's been coiling for nearly two hours finally snaps, and it's quiet, uncomfortable, and genuinely devastating. No explosions, no melodrama. Just people, cornered by their own choices, and the awful silence that follows. That's Asghar Farhadi doing what he does better than almost anyone.

I came in with high expectations, and I'll be honest about why. I absolutely loved A Separation (2011), which I think is one of the finest films of the last two decades. That film set a bar that's genuinely hard to clear. The Salesman doesn't clear it, but it gets close enough that I'm still thinking about it days later, which counts for a lot.

The setup is deceptively simple. A couple, Emad and Rana, are forced out of their Tehran flat when the building becomes structurally unsafe, and they move into a new place at short notice. The previous tenant, it turns out, had a complicated life, and that history bleeds into theirs when Rana is attacked by a stranger while home alone. What follows isn't really a thriller, though it has thriller bones. It's a study in how trauma moves through people differently, and how a man's need to be seen as the one who fixes things can quietly swallow everyone else's pain.

That's where my one real frustration lives. Rana's experience is the wound at the centre of this story, but the film drifts steadily away from her perspective and into Emad's. His anger, his pride, his slow-burning obsession with finding who did this, it takes over. And look, I understand why Farhadi makes that choice. Emad's behaviour is the thing being examined and quietly judged. But Rana gets pushed to the margins at precisely the moment when her inner world matters most. We see her fear in flashes, her silence, her reluctance, but we rarely get to sit with it. That gap costs the film something real.

The pacing is also a test. This is a slow film, which I'm generally fine with, but there are stretches in the middle act where scenes run longer than they need to and the momentum dips. I'd guess there's about twenty to thirty minutes here that could be trimmed without losing anything essential. It doesn't sink the film, but you feel it.

What keeps everything taut is the craft and the performances. Both leads carry themselves with a kind of restrained intensity that makes every look and every silence feel loaded. And Farhadi's script, as ever, is built on genuine moral complexity. There are no villains in the clean, satisfying sense. There's guilt, shame, pride, and a kind of justice that doesn't feel like justice at all by the time it arrives. Classic Farhadi: real people, impossible situations, no tidy resolution.

It's also worth noting this was my stop on an A-Z World Movie Tour, representing Qatar, and it's a fine reminder of how Iranian cinema rewards patience. If you've explored that part of the world's output and haven't yet, A Few Cubic Meters of Love (2014) is another one worth your time from that region.

Three and a half stars. Not the film I was hoping it might be, given the standard Farhadi had already set himself, but still a gripping, thoughtful piece of work. The final act alone earns it. Go in patient, and it'll get under your skin.

Rating: ★★★½  | Year: 2016  | Watched: 2025-08-25

View on Letterboxd →

Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Amazon Prime Video · Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Google Play Movies · Curzon Home Cinema
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: Amazon Prime Video · Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Physical: Amazon US

Affiliate disclosure: Movies With Macca may earn a small commission on purchases or subscriptions started via these links. It costs you nothing extra.

Related on Movies With Macca

More from Asghar Farhadi: A Separation (2011)
More from Iran: The House Is Black (1963) · A Separation (2011) · A Few Cubic Meters of Love (2014)
More from the 2010s: Wonder (2017) · Beautiful Boy (2018) · The Witch (2015) · What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
More drama: Viy (1967) · Wonder (2017) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Beautiful Boy (2018)
More thriller: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Angst (1983) · The Long Walk (2025) · Punishment Park (1971)