Based on a recent list issued by the film and television website The Playlist, Iran's acclaimed filmmaker Asghar Farhadi is ranked 13th, and is ahead of well-known figures, namely Steven Spielberg (ranked 25th in the list), Christopher Nolan (24), David Fincher (16) and Pedro Almodovar (15), in the 100 best and most exciting directors working today.

Directors who may have done stunning work in their day but have either gone substantially off the boil or have been dormant for a while have not been included in the list and it only includes those who are currently making notable movies.

As the section about Farhadi explains, he came to major prominence after the international breakthrough of his engrossing humanist masterpiece 'A Separation'. However his prior titles, especially 'Fireworks Wednesday' and 'About Elly', prove just how assured a filmmaker he was long before his Best Foreign Film Oscar, won in 2012 for 'A Separation'.

Creating vastly absorbing and deeply relatable human dramas that are both culturally specific and utterly universal, Farhadi's subsequent films 'The Past' and this year’s Cannes winner 'The Salesman' are also extraordinary.

This is all one needs to know about the brilliance of Farhadi, perhaps the era’s greatest, most incandescently empathetic chronicler of human relationships.

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (77), Guillermo Del Toro (73), Darren Aronofsky (57), Quentin Tarantino (56), Jim Jarmusch (54), David Lynch (39), are among the others in the list.

The article also paid tribute to the late filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami who passed away in July. Iranian master Kiarostami was firmly placed inside the top 10 when putting the list together but he sadly passed away not long after.

However, according to the writers of the article, Farhadi is a true follower of Kiarostami. As they wrote, cinema in general, and Iranian film in particular, suffered a huge loss with the death of Kiarostami, "but if part of the measure of any legend is the filmmaking he inspires and lays groundwork for, Kiarostami’s legacy is assured because of Asghar Farhadi."

The top three directors in the list include Paul Thomas Anderson, Kathryn Bigelow and the Coen Brothers who are ranked first to third respectively.

By Financial Tribune