Nearly 70 years after its premiere, Death of a Salesman endures as a devastating look at the dysfunction of the American Dream. When a Tehran amateur theater group stages a new production of Arthur Miller’s classic in the Farsi language, their implied criticisms of Western ideology pale when compared to the dysfunctions exposed within the players’ own worlds. Emad (Shahab Hosseini, who won Best Actor at Cannes for this role) plays Willy Loman, and his real-life wife Rana (Taraneh Alidoosti) plays Willy’s wife Linda. When problems arising from shoddy safety mechanisms force Emad and Rana to leave their rented apartment, the couple take refuge in a fellow actor’s recently vacated loft. However, there remain unresolved issues with a previous tenant, a prostitute who has left behind some personal effects. One night, while Emad meets with Iranian censors to discuss cuts to the play, Rana is brutally attacked at home by a mysterious intruder. Fearing public humiliation, Rana refuses to go to the police, insisting that Emad tells everyone her injuries are the result of an accident. A morally complex, emotionally fraught tale of human fragility, Iranian master Asghar Farhadi’s The Salesman is a worthy companion piece to his Oscar-winning A Separation. –Jaie Laplante