Scenes From a Marriage

FIREWORKS WEDNESDAY (2006) (A-minus) - Asghar Farhadi is the one storyteller of the past decade who most perfectly renders the complexities and challenges of relationships.

We have tracked the Iranian director's filmography backward and forward, starting with "A Separation," 2011's troubling tale of a breakup, which topped our best-of list that year; 2013's "The Past," a slow burn of a family drama; and a latent release, 2009's mystery "About Elly," which was released last year. Distributors reach back to 2006 for the latest release, "Fireworks Wednesday," about a young woman who gets tangled in a couple's simmering domestic dispute.

We follow Roohi (Taraneh Aladoosti, the title character in "Elly"), planning a wedding with a fiance we see in the opening scene of the couple on the motorcycle, and earning some extra cash by taking a cleaning job at the condo of Morteza (Hamid Farokhnezhad) and his wife Mozhde (Hediyeh Tehrani). Morteza has noticeably put his hand through a window; it was presumably done during an argument with Mozhde over her suspicions that he's having an affair.

Roohi, with big eyes and a girl-next-door innocence, keeps her head down and tries not to get too deeply snarled in the domestic warfare. The dialogue is spare, and we're often required to read between the lines to catch all the subtext. In the outside world, Tehran is preparing for a new-year's celebration, a fireworks spectacular on the order of July Fourth. Firecrackers sound off constantly throughout the film; the relentless popping provides an unsettling soundtrack.

Roohi decides to get her eyebrows styled (to surprise the fiance), so she visits the beautician in the couple's condo building. The woman happens to be the prime suspect in Morteza's infidelity. Is he a dog, or is Mozhde imagining things? Will the big fireworks finale be figurative or merely literal?

This all certainly gives Roohi a sobering lesson in the pitfalls of marriage. Aladoosti and the striking Tehrani sizzle in their scenes together. Farokhnezhad broods and stomps around like a caged lion in his messy abode.

In retrospect, this is a fitting prequel to and set-up for the endgame of "A Separation." It is subtle, sophisticated cinema from a filmmaker who knows his way around the battle of the sexes.

BONUS TRACK
We're reminded of Elvis Costello's  '80s track that could have easily been chosen to play over the credits, "Indoor Fireworks":