The opening moments of The Salesman underscore Farhadi's status as one of the great unsung visual stylists of contemporary cinema.

Despite the specificity of modern-day Iran, The Salesman can transpire anywhere, any time. After all dysfunctional families, messy relationships and marriages on the verge of breakdown can't be confined either by national boundaries or time zones.

There is perhaps no director more adept at capturing the unfolding stories of ordinary people when the drama of their lives runs away with them.

Apart from shared themes that the play and the film have — primarily in terms of one's interpretation of and reaction to reality, the theatre portions also show how life sometimes forces you to go out into the world and put on an act...