Director: Asghar Farhadi
I’d been waiting not-so-patiently for this to finally get a local release and when it finally came along this weekend I’m happy to say that it did not disappoint. It is a master course in artfully unraveling the mystery of events that occur just out of frame or just beyond a carefully chosen cut in the scene. Piecing together the snippets of heated testimony, sorting out the lies, half-truths, and shadings of memory until the truth is finally confessed. It truly does bring to mind the best of Hitchcock in that sense (namely Rear Window, The Wrong Man), but it is working around a completely different set of circumstances.
The separation in question is a split between Iranian couple Nader (a superb Peyman Moadi) and Simin (Leila Hatami; absolutely breathtaking), who love each other but cannot reconcile a rift in their obligations: she wants to take their daughter, Termeh, out of the country to have better opportunities for success and happiness; he would go if he could, but he cannot leave behind his father, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s and requires daily care. When she moves out, a caretaker with her own daughter is brought in to help, and the difficulties begin to twist out of control.
These are people striving for happiness, to raise their children with a sense of decency and responsibility, and the film shows them in a very human light, emotions laid bare. The story has universal appeal, but is colored by some very specific issues dealing with religion, reconciliation, righteousness, justice, and guilt, that not only deepen the story on the screen but also work as commentary to broader cultural issues.
The separation in question is a split between Iranian couple Nader (a superb Peyman Moadi) and Simin (Leila Hatami; absolutely breathtaking), who love each other but cannot reconcile a rift in their obligations: she wants to take their daughter, Termeh, out of the country to have better opportunities for success and happiness; he would go if he could, but he cannot leave behind his father, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s and requires daily care. When she moves out, a caretaker with her own daughter is brought in to help, and the difficulties begin to twist out of control.
These are people striving for happiness, to raise their children with a sense of decency and responsibility, and the film shows them in a very human light, emotions laid bare. The story has universal appeal, but is colored by some very specific issues dealing with religion, reconciliation, righteousness, justice, and guilt, that not only deepen the story on the screen but also work as commentary to broader cultural issues.
I often found myself utterly lost in supremely skilled, subtle artistic composition, though it must be easy when starting with such a strikingly beautiful face as Hatami’s. The shock of red hair peeking out from under her hijab gives her a unique, memorable dash, and makes a provocative statement about the ever-evolving role of women in the Arabic world.Farhadi makes wonderful use of compressed space and architecture, dividing with walls and doors, peeking around corners, and utilizing windows in a number of creative ways (look for a repeating broken-glass motif.) It is not just a matter of cleverly blocking a scene and shaping the manner in which the story is told, but also serves as an outward manifestation of emotional resonance for the characters. A Separation also contains of the most stunning two-shot/close-ups I’ve seen since I was going through my Bergman phase, enhanced by the movement of a descending elevator.
This is not an “anytime” picture; it takes a certain frame of mind to experience a film like this that requires attention to detail and puts you through an emotional wringer,
but it is without a doubt one of the best films of the year and more than worthy of that level of attention.
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