Amid all the designs and arrangements of a screenplay, there are moments when the director’s mind drifts into light and poetry — a moment that becomes a creation reaching deep into the audience’s emotions and soul. The audience reads the film as one reads poetry — not from words, but from images. Experiencing empathy with the story’s characters works on the audience’s mind much like the act of recalling distant memories.
To discover the delicate, artistic frames that evoke cinematic poetry in Asghar Farhadi’s cinema, one needs only to sense the pulse of the story throbbing within their own palms.
Tears Beneath the Desert Sky
To find traces of poetry in cinema, one does not need to wait for rhythmic dialogue or coherent words; it is enough for a lasting moment to take shape — like the old man’s stifled tears in “Dancing in the Dust” (2003), shed inside a car, at midnight, in the heart of the desert. Smoke dances, swirls, and rises into the air, while the old man’s anguish — like the venom of the snake he had waited hours to catch — seeps quietly into the viewer’s heart. Everything dissolves into the bitterness, darkness, and gravity of melancholy.
Here, amid the geometry and arrangement of the plot, the filmmaker finds his way to the audience’s heart, making his main character — after all the outbursts we have witnessed from him — suddenly appear likable and even justified.
Silent Sparks of Emotion
After all these years, Asghar Farhadi has shown that he is more than just a tasteful filmmaker; he is a gifted director who knows when to appeal to the audience’s emotions and where to employ narrative precision to keep them engaged. In “Fireworks Wednesday” (2006), a film beloved by Farhadi’s fans, there are moments where the writer-director deliberately guides the audience’s feelings.
Rouhi (Taraneh Alidoosti) meets Mojdeh (Hediyeh Tehrani) with more than a passing glance. Mojdeh waits in the doorway, and Rouhi gets one more chance to see her. Their eyes meet, and nothing is spoken about Morteza, Mojdeh’s spouse and the neighbor opposite; yet her gaze says it all. Rouhi’s attentive look reveals a secret that Mojdeh has tried to uncover in countless ways. This brevity, like a bright spark, captivates the audience in Farhadi’s film.
Echoes of Absence
The kite in Elly’s (Taraneh Alidoosti) hands soars through the air, waves crash on the beach, the sound echoes in the audience’s ears, and Elly’s red, spotted scarf draws the eye. Despite a tense and unsettling story, the film’s careful storytelling, setting, and tone create unforgettable moments. This is the last time the viewer sees Elly in “About Elly” (2009).
Later, at the film’s conclusion, Sepideh (Golshifteh Farahani) — Elly’s friend who invited her on the trip — breaks down in the kitchen, collapsing with trembling shoulders in response to Elly’s fiancé’s questions. This becomes another memorable frame of the film.
Farhadi’s use of acting, mood, color, and sound grips the audience’s emotions, making escape impossible.
Burden and Tenderness
As the phrase “I know he is my father!” spoken by Nader (Payman Maadi) in court has become iconic, the scene in which he washes his father’s aged body in the bathroom lingers in memory in “A Separation” (2011).
Nader bears a tremendous burden on his shoulders: the weight of a decision, his child’s future, the pain of separation from his wife, coming to terms with society’s flaws, and, on top of it all, a father on the verge of forgetting his son. Yet Nader is too noble to ignore his emotions amidst the chaos. He carries his father’s load with devotion, and in a poignant moment of this Oscar-winning film, he breaks down, tears falling on his father’s shoulder.
The film resonates deeply with the audience, and this sequence balances all perceptions of Nader, making his struggles and choices profoundly human.
Threads of Unease
Everyone is gathered around the dinner table, including the small son of a coworker, Emad (Shahab Hosseini), and Rana (Taraneh Alidoosti). Rana has prepared dinner: spaghetti. As they eat, Emad asks Rana about the money for the shopping trip, and she points to the money Emad had left in a corner. It is the same money that the rapist had left behind before leaving the residence. Unknowingly, Rana had purchased dinner with the attacker’s money, and now everyone is eating food bought with his tainted money.
Emad refuses to continue eating and sets the dish aside, but as the pasta threads curl like octopus limbs in the characters’ mouths, the audience feels a deep sense of disgust. The choice of this type of food, its twisted form, and the way it is presented from stage to screen create a vivid, almost theatrical depiction of the intruder’s violation of the home.
“The Salesman” (2016) partly unfolds like a stage play, with such striking lighting and meticulous set-up that the emotional impact is impossible to ignore.
Success at the Peak
Asghar Farhadi’s films are full of poetic moments. He allows for a subtle, poetic expression at the heart of his intricate narratives, and it is these moments that, consciously or unconsciously, capture the audience’s emotions and leave a lasting impression.
His work has received widespread acclaim, from Cannes and Berlin to the Academy Awards. “About Elly” and “A Separation” won honors in Berlin, while “The Salesman”, “A Hero” (2021), and “Everybody Knows” (2018) competed at Cannes, with the first two earning major accolades. “A Separation” and “The Salesman” each won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and Farhadi has also been recognized at Locarno, Chicago, Kerala, and many other prominent festivals across Asia, Europe, and America.
Farhadi’s cinema holds a unique place both in its global reach and the number of awards it has garnered. Popular not only internationally but profoundly in Iran, his films speak from the heart, their words brief yet deeply moving.
