 Part of this decision owed to Farhadi's own background in the theatre, and his desire to re-immerse himself in that atmosphere.He also felt actors had to think of themselves as other people and create empathy, and his male protagonist would be forced to feel empathy for another man.Looking for a play within the film, Farhadi researched the work of Jean-Paul Sartre and Henrik Ibsen before finding Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman", which he described as "a gift for me".