The Salesman. Photo: Habib Majidi/Arte France Cinéma Great news! Because of the imperial president’s ban on citizens of certain countries entering the United States, audiences are paying a lot more attention — and showing up in droves — to this year’s Academy Award–nominated Iranian film The Salesman. It’s unclear if the writer-director, Asghar Farhadi, would be able to attend the ceremony at the end of February and he has said he won’t even try — and why should he? His absence speaks louder than anything he could actually say. In any case, The Salesman actively promotes the suppression of women and argues on behalf of worldwide jihad. Just kidding! It’s another of the director’s analytical but deeply empathetic films about modern Iranian society and what separates men from women and the government from its people. Obliquely, of course. You can’t directly criticize the Iranian regime. You need to move … [Read more...] about Asghar Farhadi’s