The Salesman (2016 film) The film premiered in competition in the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, where it won two awards—Best Screenplay for Farhadi and Best Actor for Hosseini. "The Salesman" went on to receive more positive reviews, and won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. However, Farhadi did not attend the 89th Academy Awards ceremony in protest of the U.S. Executive Order 13769. Emad and Rana are a married couple who both work in the theatre, currently starring in a production of "Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller, with Emad portraying Willy Loman and Rana playing Linda. Emad is also a
Willy Loman rope". Lowry described the production as depicting "the end of a man when his dream world is shattered". Creator Arthur Miller described the role as one for a large character in a small physical body and noted he had difficulty finding the right actor at first. The part was originally written for a physically small man with Willy at one point saying to his wife "I'm short. I'm very foolish to look at." When Cobb was cast, the line was changed to "I'm fat. I'm very foolish to look at," and a reference to Willy being called a "shrimp" was