The Salesman

"The Salesman gets underway with an unsettling seismic event. Is it an earthquake or a bomb? The apartment building where married couple Emad (Shahab Hosseini) and Rana (Taraneh Alidoosti) live has become unstable and they scramble to flee, stopping only to help a disabled neighbour. These are good people, and as we know from director Asghar Farhadi (A Separation) bad things can most certainly happen to the good."

"Every shot is in place, every line leading to an outcome that feels quietly up for grabs."

"On this present occasion, Farhadi may hardly be reinventing himself, but his old tools serve him just fine."

"With exquisite patience and attention to detail, Asghar Farhadi, the writer and director, builds a solid and suspenseful plot out of ordinary incidents, and packs it with rich and resonant ideas."

"The Salesman is a well-crafted, valuable drama."

"Farhadi has created that sense of common ground and shared human experience."

"One of the most intriguing and thought-provoking movies you are likely to see this year."

"Isn't as stunning as A Separation, but it's still a class act."

"If the setup is creaky, the payoff, when it arrives, is a thing to behold."

"The final punches are delivered in a knock-out finale that leaves the viewer tense and breathless."

"This taut Iranian thriller recalls the work of Alfred Hitchcock, Claude Chabrol, and Brian De Palma."