Film Forum

From Asghar Farhadi, the Oscar-winning Iranian director of A SEPARATION and ABOUT ELLY: “a beautifully paced drama about marital infidelity” (Deborah Young, Variety). Fireworks Wednesday (aka Red Wednesday, this year March 16) is a joyous holiday celebrating the Persian New Year with bonfires, firecrackers, and dancing in the streets. Farhadi counterpoints the festivities with a simmering domestic intrigue observed by Rouhi, a young maid (Taraneh Alidoosti, Elly of ABOUT ELLY), who cleans for a married couple. When the wife accuses her husband of having an affair with a divorced neighbor, Rouhi, once buoyant about her own upcoming wedding, starts having second thoughts. Employing intricate plotting and shifting perspectives as he did in A SEPARATION, Farhadi creates “a thoroughly engrossing and densely textured drama, showing (his) cool skill in dissecting the Iranian middle classes and the unhappiness of marriage.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian (UK)

IRAN • 2006 • 104 MINS. • IN FARSI WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES

Reviews

“A thoroughly engrossing and densely textured drama, showing Farhadi’s cool skill in dissecting the Iranian middle classes and the unhappiness of marriage.”
– Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

“This compelling, corrosive account of male-female relationships in today’s Tehran is tempered by genuine compassion for the individuals concerned; wisely, Farhadi never serves judgement on them in their troubled pursuit of truth, love and happiness. Intelligent, illuminating and directed with unflashy expertise.”
– Geoff Andrew, Time Out New York