EXCLUSIVE: Film Director Asghar Farhadi’s Plans for London West End
With two Academy Awards already under his belt, Asghar Farhadi has nothing left to prove, but the writer and director of A Separation (2011) and The Salesman (2016) revealed to Ikon London Magazine of his wish to come to London.
Over the past decade, Asghar Farhadi has quickly established himself as one of Iran’s most influential and internationally recognised filmmakers, both for his tense and carefully crafted scripts and for the virtuosity of his realism in directing. At the Berlinale, A Separation (2011) garnered the Golden Bear, then the Golden Globe, César and Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Farhadi then entered the Official Selection at Cannes with The Past (2013, Best Actress for Bérénice Bejo) and The Salesman (2016, Best Screenplay and Best Actor for Shahab Hosseini), which also won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film.
Earlier this month, the Iranian director was promoting his latest ‘small budget’ £9 M film Everybody Knows starring Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem. The psychological thriller follows Laura (Cruz) who travels with her teenage daughter and young son to the village where she grew up to attend her sister’s wedding. She’s left her husband Alejandro (Darín) back in Argentina and is free to plunge into the simple pleasures of her youth. But tensions run just under the surface with Laura’s family, and the stray feelings she has for her old boyfriend Paco (Bardem), who now runs a nearby vineyard, might trouble the waters further.
However, the film didn’t win at the Toronto Film Festival but was honoured by the organisers of Cannes Film Festival who scheduled Everybody Knows to open the 71st edition on the 8th of May 2018.
Will Asghar Faradi’s next project be theatre?
Despite his film not winning in Cannes and Toronto, the celebrated director was in great spirits as he spoke to Ikon London Magazine about his future plans. “I wish one day I do a play in London,” the filmmaker admitted with a sparkle in his eyes. He continued, “I know there is a lot of great plays every day. And I wish one day I do a play there. It is not far,” he affirmed. “It is our plan.”
Joe Alvarez commented on the topic summarizing the Toronto Film Festival: “No doubt, it will be a great play and he will have some A-lister playing in it. As a lot of actors ‘cut their teeth’ in London West End and they often move to Boradway after.”
“I know there is a lot of great plays every day. And I wish one day I do a play there. It is not far,” he affirmed. “It is our plan.”
Broadway or not, we hope to see Asghar Farhadi’s first theatre play in London soon.
Editor in Chief of Ikon London Magazine, journalist, film producer and founder of The DAFTA Film Awards (The DAFTAs).
