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Farhadi, Asghar (Author/Film Director); Dehgahni, Simindokht & Lahidji, Massoumeh (Translators) : The Past: A Film By Asghar Farhadi

Memento Films/Sony Film Classics, Paris, France, 2013

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in No Dust Jacket, As Issued. 100 pages. Rare Asghar Farhadi collectible item. A pristine copy of the Complete Screenplay of "The Past", signed by Asghar Farhadi, with a brand-new copy of the film itself on Blu-ray. Printed in a tiny run for the exclusive use of Memento Films, the producer, and Sony Film Classics, the global distributor. Printed on pristine-white, archival stock paper in Paris to the highest standards. Without DJ, as issued. Presents Asghar Farhadi's "The Past" in a felicitous English translation. The Iranian film director's follow-up to his award-winning breakthrough, "A Separation" (2012). Farhadi's films are about human relationships as they unravel in the shadow of an invisible Iranian theocracy, which he can never directly criticize (although he does, ever so subtly and therefore more effectively). Still, his films are not political at all (as say, Costa-Gavras). It's not because he is restricted as such by the state, but because he has shown NO interest thus far in politics, ideology, or the nation-state as a film artist, either as its propagandist or critic, itself the most powerful statement an artist could ever make. Farhadi's films belie the Western truism that the "personal is political" as priveleged and self-aggrandizing. His films are instead, liberatingly personal. They are about fully realized, middle-class characters whose lives mirror the spatial dimension of being caught in the middle, of being "in-between": Between joy and anguish, altruism and self-interest, creature comforts and daily struggles. His characters ARE in spite of, rather than thanks to, the ruling Ayatollahs. Whereas "A Separation" is relentless in a gut-wrenching way, "The Past" is meditative in an equally gut-wrenching way, demonstrating Farhadi's tonal range. He already has a considerable body of work behind him, not just two great films, set in Iran about Iranian characters for an Iranian audience that nevertheless has a transcendent appeal to a broader global audience. He is the best Iranian film director since the late great Abbas Kiarostami, but they have very little in common as artists: Kiarostami was an elusive, ironic, and formalist auteur whereas Farhadi is a focussed, tragicomic, and riveting dramatist. The vitality and power of his films will feel true to every serious moviegoer who cares about "foreign films" (by definition, films made by The Other almost as if the latter are creatures from outer space). It's as if we are watching real life unfold in real time, the pressing human issues presented to us un-mediated by intrusive film "style", "technique", or "special effects"; they are organic dramas, not manufactured or formulaic as most (though not all) Hollywood assembly-line products are. That Farhadi is able to make his films at all, in Iran of all places, is a miracle. He is an actor's director: "The Past" has luminous performances by Ali Mosaffa, Berenice Bejo, and Tahar Rahim. An absolute "must-have" title for Asghar Farhadi collectors. This copy of the Complete Screenplay of "The Past" is very boldly and beautifully signed in black pen on the title page by Asghar Farhadi. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. It comes with a brand-new copy of the film on Blu-ray. This title is a great film. As far as we know, this is the only such signed copy with Blu-ray available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, pristine beauties. Please note: Farhadi signed the screenplay, NOT the Blu-ray. A rare signed copy thus. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2012 for "A Separation", the very first Iranian film to win the award. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2017 for "The Salesman". "A Separation" was selected by a panel of British film critics, reviewers, and academic scholars as "The Best Film So Far" (of the century's first fifteen years) in 2015. One of the most brilliant film directors of our time. A fine collectible set. .

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