THE SALESMAN - Persian Film Fest Screening

Asghar Farhadi | 2016 | Iran | 124 minutes | Original Persian audio with English subtitles

Proudly presented as part of our extended Persian Film Fest at FOMO Secret Cinema.

THE SALESMAN follows a married couple in Tehran whose life is disrupted after they are forced to leave their apartment and move into a new home with an unsettling past. When an incident occurs that deeply affects the wife, the husband becomes consumed by the need to identify and confront the person responsible. What begins as a personal search for justice slowly turns into an examination of pride, shame, and moral responsibility in modern Iran.

The film belongs to the third wave of the Persian New Wave, where filmmakers engage more directly with social tension under the Islamic Republic. Much like his previous film A SEPARATION, Farhadi avoids slogans or explicit politics, instead showing how fear, reputation, and gender expectations operate within everyday life. The pressure to maintain dignity and control mirrors a wider culture shaped by surveillance and judgment under the IRGC.

THE SALESMAN won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, though Farhadi refused to attend the ceremony in protest against US immigration policies. The film is admired for its precision and restraint, and for how it exposes the quiet violence that emerges when moral certainty replaces empathy.

Location: FOMO Secret Cinema, Bazari Orbeliani, Tbilisi. A five minute walk from Liberty Square metro

How to find FOMO: Enter the Bazari via Atoneli St above Carrefour and take the stairs on your left behind the jewellery stand. One flight up. Video instructions here