By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Asghar Farhadi
Starring: Hamid Farokhnezhad | Hediyeh Tehrani | Houman Seyyedi | Pantea Bahram | Sahar Dolatshahi | Taraneh Alidoosti
Original language title: Chaharshanbe-soori
Country: iran
Year: 2006
Running time: 102
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0845439/reference
Michael says: “The first film by Farhadi that I saw was the riveting A SEPARATION, released in US in 2012, which I didn’t realize was his first film until quite a bit later. His follow-up film, the nearly as riveting THE PAST was released at the end of 2013, and it wasn’t until 2015 that ABOUT ELLY was available in the US, that film being made in 2009, and at the time, I presumed it was his debut feature. Now I have found out, nope, it was his third feature release, so I went back and watched his second directorial efforts, FIREWORKS WEDNESDAY, originally released in 2008, re-released in the States in 2016, and me, just getting around to watching it in 2021. Asghar Farhadi is such an accomplished filmmaker, and you can see, even with this early work, how talented he is. In addition to directing, he co-wrote FIREWORKS WEDNESDAY with Mani Haghigi. You can see elements that will become used again first explored in FIREWORKS WEDNESDAY, his sense of domestic drama with heightened suspense, misunderstandings, to create thrilling non-thrillers.
“In FIREWORKS WEDNESDAY, Roohi, a young woman engaged to be married, works at a housecleaning placement service. When she arrives at her latest job, Morteza lets her in to begin working, but rushes off to work, explaining that his wife will be home soon. When Mozhde does arrive she seems in a frazzled state and dismissed Roohi, but before the young woman can leave, Mozhde learns that she is about to get married and offers to send her to have her eyebrows done by her neighbor who operates a salon out of her apartment, provided that she gather she information while she is there. Things get even further tangled when Roohi makes a misguided attempt to smooth things over between Mozhde and Morteza, which leads to more complications and revelations to be revealed.
“Farhadi is a master at creating these complex domestic situations. You can see the seeds of A SEPARATION in FIREWORKS, where good people are put into difficult positions that force them to do something they might not ordinarily do. Of course, in FIREWORKS, there is actual deception going on, so it’s slightly different, but our central character Roohi, while seemingly a bit of a meddler, truly is a good person just trying to do her job and help people. The actors are all excellent as well, especially there three women, Roohi (Taraneh Alidoosti, also in Farhadi’s ABOUT ELLY and 2016’s
THE SALESMAN), Mozehde (Hediyeh Tehrani) and Simin (the salon owner, played by Pantea Bahram). If you enjoy Farhadi’s films, you should definitely go back and check this one out. I’d love to see Farhdi’s debut film, BEAUTIFUL CITY, but it doesn’t appear to be available in the US at this time.
4 cats“
