The Salesman trailer: This Iranian film explores equation between husband, assaulted wife

The trailer of Persian film The Salesman delicately tells the story of man in pursuit of his wife’s assaulter in Iran. It explores the fragile relationship between the spouses.

The trailer opens with the sound of a crash and a child crying. The silhouette of a man enters the room and then opens a door to an elevator. Next we see a man, the protagonist, instructing scared people to flee from a building using the staircase.

The screen turns black, and we hear a woman’s voice asking, “Still alive, then?” The protagonist and a woman, presumably his wife, walk down a flight of stairs, out of a building which the man peers at. “I thought we’d have to dig you out of the rubble,” the woman says. They seem to have moved into a new house, where the old tenant is yet to collect her belongings.

Here on, the trailer becomes more fast paced. We see the woman prepare a bath and enter the bathroom. The door of the house opens ever so slightly, indicating that someone has entered the house. The protagonist returns home to find blood stains on the stairs and his wife’s face covered in scars, implying that she has been assaulted.

He insists that they go to the police, and his wife flatly refuses. His neighbours tell him that they heard cries from the apartment that night.

The trailer has some powerful exchanges of dialogues. “Do you know what I am going through? What are you going to do?” the wife asks. “I need to find that guy,” the husband says. “You’re taking revenge,” the wife replies. “You won’t let me go to the police, what am I supposed to do then?” the husband demands.

The trailer is interspersed with visuals of the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, in which the protagonist and his wife play roles and the trailer ends with a chase scene.

The Salesman has been directed by Asghar Farhadi and stars Shahab Hosseini and Taraneh Alidoosti. It releases on 31 March, 2017 in India.

Watch the trailer here: