Asghar Farhadi’s award-winning film ‘The Salesman’ has started international screening from France. It was released in 300 French cinemas on November 11.
The film will gradually be shown in over 45 countries, a rare success for a cinematic production from Iran, the online cinema magazine cinetmag.com reported.
Screening for two months in Iran, it has earned $4 million and is ranked fourth in the country’s bestsellers list of all-time.
The 2016 production, running for two hours, has attended over 10 international festivals, winning top honors at Cannes Film Festival including the Best Screenplay and Best Actor awards in the official competition section in May and the grand prize of Munich International Film Festival in July among others.
It is Iran’s official entry to the 2017 Academy Awards for the Best Foreign Language Film Category.
The film tells the story of a young couple Emad (Shahab Hosseini) and Rana (Taraneh Alidoosti) who move into a new flat in the center of Tehran. But an incident linked to the previous tenant dramatically changes their life.
‘The Salesman’ is produced by Farhadi and Memento Films Production. Memento will release the film in Europe while Amazon Studios and Cohen Media Group own the rights for the American distribution of the movie. The French are familiar with Farhadi as his 2013 film ‘The Past’, filmed in France, was screened in French cinemas and earned over $7 million.
The English poster for the American screening of the film has been released. It will hit movie theaters across the US on January 27, 2017.
Farhadi is known to the American audience as his previous films ‘A Separation’, ‘The Past’ and ‘About Elly’ were screened, though in a limited number of cinemas, in the US.
