The Guardian|Saeed Kamali Dehghan: The Iranian film-maker’s choice of a former Nasa scientist and the first Iranian in space to pick up his best foreign language Oscar delivered a subtle but powerful message about a world without borders

Iranian film-maker Asghar Farhadi’s choice of replacement speakers at the Oscars has won praise from Iranians and has been seen as adding an extra layer of subtlety to his message in absentia.

Farhadi won his second Oscar last night for The Salesman, about a couple whose relationship is thrown into disarray after an intruder surprises the wife in the shower. The story is influenced by Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. The win has put him on a shortlist of elite directors who have won an Oscar in the foreign film category more than once, including Federico Fellini and Ingmar Bergman.

Farhadi boycotted the ceremony in Los Angeles “out of respect for the people of my country and those of other six nations” affected by Donald Trump’s travel banon seven predominantly Muslim countries, which he said “have been disrespected by the inhumane law that bans entry of immigrants to the US”.

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