September 01, 2017
Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi, the two-time Oscar-winning director of “A Separation” and “The Salesman,” has started photography in Spain on “Everybody Knows,” his new psychological thriller starring Spaniards Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz.
Budgeted at 10 million euros ($11.8 million), the script for the Spanish-language film was written in Farsi by Farhadi.
“Everybody Knows” follows the journey of Carolina (Cruz) as she travels with her family from Buenos Aires to her hometown in Spain for a celebration. Meant to be a brief visit, the trip is upset when the daughter disappears from a wedding ceremony.
Farhadi earlier revealed the Bardem-Cruz married couple will “not necessarily” play an on-screen couple in the Spanish-language feature.
“Once again there are different couples in my film, not only one,” Farhadi told Screen in March, of what is a recurring theme of his work.
“The film is again about family and family relationships. But there are also some new aspects in it. Yes [Cruz and Bardem] are in the film but they are not necessarily a couple in the film.”
Cruz and Bardem have played in six films together, three made before they got married in 2008.
The non-Spanish speaker said he has written the script for the new film in Farsi and it has been translated into Spanish. “I don’t speak Spanish,” he explained via a translator. “But I have time between now and the shoot to at least become more familiar with the music of the film and do my best.”
“Everybody Knows,” which has started shooting near Madrid last Monday, is being sold worldwide by Memento Films International of Paris, according to Variety.
“Everybody Knows” marks the third collaboration between Farhadi and Memento after “The Salesman” and “The Past.”
