Synopsis

In Asghar Farhadi's third feature, the titular fireworks are literal - the story takes place on March 21, when Iranians traditionally celebrate New Year by spring cleaning and lighting firecrackers - and metaphorical:

when Rouhi, a young bride-to-be working for a cleaning agency, turns up at the apartment of a relatively wealthy couple about to go on holiday, she finds herself drawn into an explosive domestic conflict.

 

What lifts the film way above mere melodrama is the way Farhadi effectively keeps us guessing from beginning to end as to what exactly is happening and why.

Indeed, he even has us wondering who the film is really about, repeatedly shifting our point of view so that we're frequently forced to reassess earlier assumptions about the characters and their reliability or otherwise:

Rouhi's optimism about her imminent wedding is suddenly confronted by a marital nightmare made up of suspicion, lies, hysteria and recrimination.



Happily, this compelling, corrosive account of male-female relationships in today's Tehran is tempered by genuine compassion for the individual characters; wisely, Farhadi never feels moved to serve judgement on them in their troubled pursuit of truth, love and happiness. Intelligent and illuminating fare, directed with admirably unflashy expertise. ( Geoff Andrew )

Cast: Hedieh Tehrani, Taraneh Alidoosti, Hamid Farokhnezhad, Pantea Bahram, Matin Heydarnia, Houman Seyyedi, Hassan Tasïri, Sahar Dolatshahi, Ebrahim Javadi, Forough Ghojabeyglou