Chaharshanbe-soori (2006) was shown in the U.S. with the title "Fireworks Wednesday. It was written and directed by Asghar Farhadi.
This movie really has two plots. One plot line involves a young working class woman who who will be married in a week. She starts work at the apartment of a wealthy family. Just a few minutes into the plot we realize that this is a dysfunctional family. The husband has flown into a rage and smashed a window with his fist. (He has a bandage in his hand throughout the movie.) The wife suspects that her husband is having an affair. She enlists the young maid to spy for her.
The relationship between the wife and the husband is the second plot line. Is the husband truly having an affair, or is this a neurotic obsession on the part of the wife?
(There's a third subplot about a man who parks his car just outside the gates of the apartment. He appears friendly enough, but I could never figure out what he was doing there. Probably everyone who saw the movie in Iran understood perfectly well what was happening. I couldn't get it. Even so, two solid plots are plenty for one movie.)
The reason the movie is called "Fireworks Wednesday" is because it's the Persian New Year, and everyone is shooting off fireworks. Fireworks are everywhere. I've never been to a movie--including war movies--with so many explosions in it. After a while, your brain partly shuts out the sound, but it's always there.
This is a powerful, dramatic, well-acted film. Although it's a drama, there are many funny moments. For example, the young outside worker and the older woman who works as concierge bond immediately. They'll never be in the upper class, but that doesn't mean they can't laugh at the weird rich people for whom they work.
The two female leads in the movie are extraordinarily talented. Hedye Tehrani plays the wife & Taraneh Alidoosti plays the domestic worker.
We saw this movie at home on the small screen, and it worked very well. It has a very high IMDb rating of 7.8, so I'm not alone in my admiration of it.
If you like unusual, interesting foreign films, with great direction and great acting, find this movie and enjoy it!
