Cannes Film Festival: The many shades of Asghar Farhadi
Farhadi at Cannes 2013
A filmmaker of international repute, Asghar Farhadi marks his re-entry into Cannes this year with his latest film chosen to open the Competition of the 71st Festival de Cannes.
Farhadi, a man critically acclaimed for his moral dilemma induced realistic style of filmmaking, has captured the fancy of film fanatics over the years. This Iranian filmmaker is not only one of the prominent auteurs of the region but also the only director to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film twice, only next to Akira Kurosawa and René Clément.
The director who is not new to the red carpet has previously had the screenings of his films The Past (2013) and The Salesman (2016) as the Official Selection at Cannes. This year, Farhadi’s Everybody Knows (Todos Lo Saben) starring Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem and Ricardo Darin is set to open the 71st Cannes Film Festival. Of what seems like a star-studded opening, Todos Lo Saben would be the second Spanish-language film to open Cannes following Pedro Almodovar’s Bad Education in 2004.
An insight into Farhadi’s Films
Whether it be The Past, A Separation, The Salesman or Everybody Knows, the complexity of marriage seems to influence the Iranian filmmaker known for exploring the dramatic sides to a lawful relationship. Even though most of his films are psychological thrillers and emotional dramas, the auteur manages to relay the rawness of the emotions through intricate plot lines such that it ‘hits’ the audience. In simpler words, Farhadi successfully translates the thrills of social relationships in a realistic manner without a hint of melodrama.
A still from Farhadi’s ‘A Separation’
For instance, in his film A Separation the scene opens with a couple in court arguing for getting divorce. Without wasting time, the dialogues follow weaving a net of ambiguity that will only be cleared in the ending. What follows in between is the transition in relationship of a middle-class Iranian couple that leads them to separate. This transition occurs between thrilling incidents spread throughout the film’s plotline, each broken pieces adding up to a whole. These incidents question and challenge the morality of the characters as religion and faith is showed to play an important hand.
Farhadi’s 2018 Cannes entry, Everybody Knows revolves around Laura, who with her children and husband leaves her hometown Buenos Aires to return to her native village in Spain for a family celebration. A twist of fate changes the course of their lives as the family and its ties are put into play against moral choices, “as in every one of Farhadi’s scripts, at the heart of the plot.”
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