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| Source: http://muftah.org/a-separation-what-american-film-critics-seems-to-have-missed/#.VkPPs2SrS2w |
Screewriter: Asghar Farhadi
Stars: Peyman Moaadi, Leila Hatami, Sareh Bayat, Shahab Hosseini
Trailer link
IMDb page
A Master of the Domestic:
The modern Iranian family and the people they encounter in A Seperation, Asghar Farhadi's Oscar winning drama from 2011, is one of the most well constructed and many layered groups of movie characters I've ever seen on film. This director's understanding of mise-en-scène and his approach to natural storytelling is freakishly impressive to me, and the fact that he went on to write and direct The Past, which in my opinion is just as good as A Seperation, solidifies Farhardi as one of the most interesting filmmakers working today (at least in my book). Divorce and family fragmentation in general is a theme that often seems to make its way into his narratives, and as the title suggest, A Seperation is no different.
A familiar story, or so you thought:
The film opens in a courtroom, where Nadar and Simin are in the middle of a heated argument. She wants to divorce him, he doesn't want to divorce her, and both of them want custody over their only child. Sounds familiar? Of cause it does, and that's exactly the point. For a while, A Seperation appears to be nothing more than what its title promises; yet another film in a long line of divorce dramas. But then something happens, and the film completely changes course. Yes, it's still essentially a movie about a family going through a tough breakup, but at the same time, it's so much more than that. It evolves into a poignant depiction of religion, pride, honesty, grief and forgiveness, and shows how those themes come into play in modern day Iran.
People Being People:
To me, the best aspect of this film is the naturalistic way in which the director lets his story unfold. It is absolutely devoid of any kind of melodrama, yet still profoundly emotional when it needs to be. The way each character acts a tiny bit differently after each major and minor plot point, Farhadi's way of suggesting rather than showing, and his elegant use of reincorporation; All of this makes A Seperation a master class in natural, relatable storytelling, something I as a child of Scandinavian cinema am able to respect and admire. Most films are lucky to have just one or two real, flawed and genuinely human main characters, but in A Seperation, Farhadi has created at least five of those. In the end, the dilemmas these characters go through are so transcending and fundamentally human, that I often found myself forgetting that I was watching an Iranian film set in Iran, with Iranian actors and actresses. They were just people to me; real people in real situations.
One Event, a Thousand Consequences:
As I explained previously, this film reaches a whole new level of depth as it gets going. By the time it reaches it's second hour and something unexpected happens, the layers of conflict, ethical chaos, doubt, anger and paranoia which the main characters find themselves plunged into, is so deep and multi colored that the drama and tension simply just soars. In particular, Peyman Moaadi's character and his struggles concerning his daughter, his feelings towards his soon-to-be ex wife and an inner battle between pride and honesty, shades him and his motives in a million different shades of gray. When the film is over and the credits start rolling, you're not only left wondering where this man will end up physically, but also how his relationships with the people around him will develop in the days and years to come. It might have come to a narrative end, yes, but A Seperation kept on rolling in my head, in the way that great films often do.
A familiar story, or so you thought:
The film opens in a courtroom, where Nadar and Simin are in the middle of a heated argument. She wants to divorce him, he doesn't want to divorce her, and both of them want custody over their only child. Sounds familiar? Of cause it does, and that's exactly the point. For a while, A Seperation appears to be nothing more than what its title promises; yet another film in a long line of divorce dramas. But then something happens, and the film completely changes course. Yes, it's still essentially a movie about a family going through a tough breakup, but at the same time, it's so much more than that. It evolves into a poignant depiction of religion, pride, honesty, grief and forgiveness, and shows how those themes come into play in modern day Iran.
People Being People:
To me, the best aspect of this film is the naturalistic way in which the director lets his story unfold. It is absolutely devoid of any kind of melodrama, yet still profoundly emotional when it needs to be. The way each character acts a tiny bit differently after each major and minor plot point, Farhadi's way of suggesting rather than showing, and his elegant use of reincorporation; All of this makes A Seperation a master class in natural, relatable storytelling, something I as a child of Scandinavian cinema am able to respect and admire. Most films are lucky to have just one or two real, flawed and genuinely human main characters, but in A Seperation, Farhadi has created at least five of those. In the end, the dilemmas these characters go through are so transcending and fundamentally human, that I often found myself forgetting that I was watching an Iranian film set in Iran, with Iranian actors and actresses. They were just people to me; real people in real situations.
One Event, a Thousand Consequences:
As I explained previously, this film reaches a whole new level of depth as it gets going. By the time it reaches it's second hour and something unexpected happens, the layers of conflict, ethical chaos, doubt, anger and paranoia which the main characters find themselves plunged into, is so deep and multi colored that the drama and tension simply just soars. In particular, Peyman Moaadi's character and his struggles concerning his daughter, his feelings towards his soon-to-be ex wife and an inner battle between pride and honesty, shades him and his motives in a million different shades of gray. When the film is over and the credits start rolling, you're not only left wondering where this man will end up physically, but also how his relationships with the people around him will develop in the days and years to come. It might have come to a narrative end, yes, but A Seperation kept on rolling in my head, in the way that great films often do.
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