The open-ended A Separation raises enough questions to keep you in deep thought for a week.
Original Title: جدایی نادر از سیمین
Director: Asghar Farhadi
Language: Farsi and Persian
Screenplay: Asghar Farhadi
Cast: Leila Hatami, Peyman Moaadi, Shahab Hosseini, Sareh Bayat, Sarina Farhadi
Awards: Golden Berlin Bear Award for Best Film by International Jury, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury by Competition, and Reader Jury of the "Berliner Morgenpost" Award, and Silver Berlin Bear for Best Actor and Best Actress, Berlin International Film Festival; Best Foreign Language Film, Academy Awards; Best Foreign Language Film, Golden Globes; Best Film, Asia Pacific Screen Awards; Best Foreign Independent Film, British Independent Film Awards; Critics Choice Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards; Silver Frog Award, Camerimage; Best Foreign Film, Chicago Film Critics Association Awards; Best Foreign Film, César Awards, France; Best Foreign-Language Film, Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards; Best Film and Best Screenplay, Durban International Film Festival; Best Film Audience Award, and Crystal Simorgh Awards for Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Recorder, Fajr Film Festival; Audience Award, Fukuoka International Film Festival; Best International Film, Independent Spirit Awards; Silver Peacock for Best Director, International Film Festival of India; Best Foreign Film, Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards; Foreign Language Film of the Year, Screenwriter of the Year, Supporting Actress of the Year, London Critics Circle Film Awards; Best Screenplay, Most Popular Feature Film, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards; Melbourne International Film Festival; Best Foreign Language Film, National Board of Review, USA; Best Foreign Language Film and Best Screenplay, National Society of Film Critics Awards, USA; Best Foreign Language Film, New York Film Critics Circle Awards; , Best Film Not in the English Language, Online Film Critics Society Awards; Best Actress FIPRESCI Prize, Palm Springs International Film Festival; Golden Arena International Competition: Best Film, Pula Film Festival; FIPRESCI Prize, Riga International Film Forum 'Arsenals'; , TVE Otra Mirada Award, San Sebastián International Film Festival; , SEFCA Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards; Best Film, Sydney Film Festival; Best Foreign Language Film, Vancouver Film Critics Circle; Grand Prix - Golden Apricot for Best Film, Yerevan International Film Festival
The joy of being human is we all want to be good. The sorrow of being human is we lie all the time – to appear to be good, to do a greater good, or to do something that might be in the best interests of everyone. Asghar Farhadi's domestic drama and courtroom procedural examines the lengths which everyone across society – excepting no one – will go to reconcile the singular joy and sorrow of being human.
Two cases and six main characters are all Farhadi needs to weave a complex, morally ambiguous story about being good and lying for the greater good, and the inability to do otherwise.
Simin and Nader, the eponymous characters, are members of the Iranian intelligentsia who had a plan to emigrate for a better life but now wish to go their separate ways – with the judge deliberately leaving the custody of their daughter unsettled. The significantly poorer Razieh is hired to take care of Nader's senile father (the chief reason for Nader's decision to remain in Iran). And yet when it appears his father has been neglected and abused by the caregiver, the altercation results in her miscarriage and a charge of murder...
In film, the problems of the urban middle class can tend to be really trying and unbearable to watch due to their self-centred outlook (see
Revolutionary Road and other suburban angst titles out of the US). Farhadi is more than capable of weaving an intricate Rashomon-style tale, conveying the psychological tension and moral dilemma of each character at every turn of the story. While
A Separation may be a drama, Farhadi's neorealist direction eschews any sense of stagey melodrama, allowing the sublime contest between character and plot, social and personal interests, morality and convenience to play itself out in the film.
It's no wonder that this film won Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the recent Oscars.
