President of the Cannes Film Festival Pierre Lescure hailed Iran’s rich culture and civilization stressing that Iran cinema enjoys a unique status in the region.
Lescure made the remarks in a meeting on Saturday in Cannes, France, with head of Iran’s Cinema Organization Hojatollah Ayoubi who is attending the event.
Lescure expressed satisfaction over the cooperation between Cannes Film Festival and Iran’s cinema.
Ayoubi invited Lescure to pay a visit to Iran.
Visiting Iran would bring him a great opportunity to become more acquainted with Iranian cinema, which “is unique in the region and a cultural powerhouse that cannot be competed with in the Middle East,” Lescure said.
Iran participated in Cannes 2016 with two films, ‘Inversion’ by Behnam Behzadi and ‘Salesman’ by the Oscar-winning Iranian Director Asghar Farhadi.
Meanwhile, Farhadi‘s ‘The Salesman’ collected positive reviews after its screening on May 21.
The two-hour film thematizes on the corrosive power of doubt. Emad (Shahab Hosseini) and his wife Rana (Taraneh Alidoosti), forced to leave their building as it is faced with structural damage, move to a friend’s (Babak Karimi) vacant apartment. However, one day, Rana is assaulted by a man at home and Emad starts his search to find the perpetrator.
Speaking at a press conference in Cannes, Farhadi said, “I believe ‘The Salesman’ is a detective movie that can attract all kinds of people, both critics and the public. A major part of the story is enigmatic. In fact, there is no detective in the film but the viewers feel they are detectives themselves”.
Almost all the critics praised the great performance by the actors as well as Farhadi’s mastery in storytelling.
Alex Billington     from FirstShowing.net gave it eight stars out of 10 calling it “a riveting film, practically a mystery that will keep you on the edge of your seat”. ‘The Salesman’ is a thoroughly engaging morality tale that proves once again just how talented a storyteller/filmmaker Asghar Farhadi is.
“From the cinematography and lighting, to the production design, the back and forth intelligent dialogue, and the screenwriting that reveals more as you move along, and the two main performances by Taraneh Alidoosti and Shahab Hosseini which are outstanding, it is all so impressive.”
 Many Layers
The story arouses the viewers’ sympathy, making them reflect deeply on different moral issues. “There are so many layers to this film, with questions to ask yourself about every situation and whether you would act/react the same way, and it moves at a steady pace that is never tiresome. It is worthy of appreciation,” he said.
John Bleasdale from Cine-vue.com gave the film four stars out of five calling the performances “as superb as audiences have come to expect”.
Jasmin Valjas from Theupcoming website gave three stars out of five to the film calling it “an engrossing picture, a noteworthy fusion of family drama and thriller”.
The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw’s gave it three stars. “It is a well-crafted, valuable drama on the theme of revenge and justice. The sheer IQ of Farhadi’s film-making makes this very watchable”.
Owen Gleiberman, chief film critic of Variety wrote, “it is another finely cut gem of neorealist suspense by Farhadi. The film is beautifully acted by Shahab Hosseini and Taraneh Alidootsi but the great performance here is that of Babak Karimi”.
Deborah Young of the Hollywood Reporter wrote, “Asghar Farhadi continues his exploration of the dark side of the soul” in a new story with “a knock-out finale that leaves the viewer tense and breathless”. In her review, she said, “the final scenes introduce a new group of characters, among whom Farid Sajjadihosseini is unforgettable”.
Ben Croll from TheWrap said the movie “sees the director returning to number of themes and ideas he has explored in his previous films, including male codes of honor, family tensions and the nature of justice. In excavating those themes, he is without rival, and he ably flexes his dramatic muscles here”.
Zornitsa Staneva from PopOptiq.com wrote, “’The Salesman’ boasts a tightly structured cause-and-effect narrative that keeps an ongoing suspense throughout most of its running time”. Hosseini and Alidoosti “deliver a flawless execution”.
The closing ceremony of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival was held late on Sunday.