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    ‘Dancing in the Dust’ Review: Marriage, Money and Morals

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    The first feature from Asghar Farhadi (“A Separation”) arrives in a remastered version on streaming services.The debut feature from the Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, “Dancing in the Dust” never received a proper release in the United States. Now, 20 years after it was first shown, it is surfacing in a remastered version on streaming platforms. Two of Farhadi’s subsequent features (“A Separation” and “The Salesman”) won the Oscar for what was then called the best foreign language film, and he has become a reliable, methodical specialist in a certain brand of domestic drama. In Farhadi films, right and wrong are never clear-cut, and the suspense is intertwined with mounting moral complexities.The opening scenes of “Dancing in the Dust” find the filmmaker already operating in his signature mode. Nazar (Yousef Khodaparast) loves his wife, Reyhane (Baran Kosari), but salacious rumors about her mother — which Reyhane won’t confirm — lead him reluctantly to seek a divorce that neither wants. Reyhane won’t agree to forget her mother, and Nazar can’t disobey his parents, even if a divorce might ruin his wife’s life.Regardless, Nazar doesn’t have the money he is supposed to pay her, and he has also defaulted on a loan for the marriage. To avoid arrest, he runs away, hiding in the van of a cantankerous snake catcher (Faramarz Gharibian), who sets upon him once they are in the desert. At this point, “Dancing in the Dust” becomes something less familiar from Farhadi, but familiar from other movies: a two-hander with temperamentally opposed men — one who won’t stop talking and one who rarely speaks — in a hostile environment where abandonment could mean death.How the pair resolve their impasse does not offer any major surprises, but “Dancing in the Dust” shows Farhadi’s early confidence with using framing and cutting to create tension and parallels — skills that would serve him later.Dancing in the DustNot rated. In Persian, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. Rent or buy on most major platforms. More

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      ‘A Hero’ Review: Debts No Honest Man Can Pay

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      In the latest film from the two-time Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi, a good Samaritan comes under suspicion.“The last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason.” “A Hero,” the new film by the Iranian writer-director Asghar Farhadi, seems to circle around these lines from T.S. Eliot’s “Murder in the Cathedral,” spinning Eliot’s observation about morality into a squall of questions about ethics and motives.At the center of the movie is what looks like an unambiguous act of decency. A man — the title character, a sign painter named Rahim Soltani (Amir Jadidi) — arranges for the return of 17 gold coins to their rightful owner. What could be wrong with that? What could go wrong as a consequence?Quite a lot, as it happens. Nothing in this stressful, intricately plotted fable of modern life is as simple as we or the characters might wish. Rahim, who has been imprisoned because of a debt, wants to clear the books and restart his life. We meet him at the beginning of a hectic two-day furlough, as he bounces from one encounter to another, hoping to secure his freedom by settling with his creditor, Hossein (Ali Reza Jahandideh), a print-shop owner who is the brother-in-law of Rahim’s former wife.The entwining of family ties and business relations is a central fact of Iranian life as Farhadi understands it. When love, honor and loyalty are at issue, money is never far away. To paraphrase Homer Simpson on the subject of alcohol, it’s the cause of and the solution to most of life’s problems.Rahim’s ex, who remains unseen, is preparing to remarry, and Rahim hopes to do the same. Their son, Siavash (Saleh Karimai), who has a severe speech impediment, lives with Rahim’s sister Malileh (Maryam Shahdaie) and her husband, Bahram, who are Rahim’s main allies. His girlfriend, Farkhondeh (Sahar Goldoust), is the one who found the gold coins, and the couple’s initial plan is to sell them to pay off enough of the debt to satisfy Hossein.Plan B — finding the rightful owner — is Rahim’s idea, and whether it’s an impulsive, impatient act of conscience or something more calculated is a source of much complication and suspense. What feels like a Hollywood ending arrives in the middle of the movie, as Rahim’s selflessness is rewarded with exactly what he has given up.The return of the coins becomes a news story and a social media sensation, the kind of feel-good episode that nobody can resist. The prison authorities are happy to exploit Rahim’s heroism for their own purposes, as is a charitable foundation that presents him with a plaque and the promise of a job. Donations flow in, and pressure grows on Hossein to let bygones be bygones.Why wouldn’t he? Rahim is tall and handsome, with an eager smile and an ingratiating manner. But Hossein isn’t alone in resisting his charm. A fellow inmate sneeringly compliments Rahim on his skill at fooling everyone. Farkhondeh’s grumpy brother thinks he’s a loser. A potential employer insists on pulling at loose threads in the story of the coins, demanding proof of every detail and treating what look like minor fibs as evidence of a larger fraud.Are they? The more time you spend with Rahim, the more you wonder if the skeptics — who at first seem bureaucratic, coldhearted or vindictive — might have a point. Do his occasional outbursts bespeak a violent temperament? Does his hangdog demeanor cover up an essential dishonesty? Or is he just, as he claims to be, a good guy who can’t seem to catch a break?Five Movies to Watch This WinterCard 1 of 51. “The Power of the Dog”: More