26 March: A Separation – 7.45PM:
A Separation is that rare thing – not just a critically acclaimed but also a commercially successful Iranian film. This is unsurprising as it is beautifully crafted with a gripping script that will keep you guessing till the end.
It’s a simple enough story of a middle class couple at a crossroads in their lives. The wife (Simin) wants desperately to leave Iran to give her twelve-year-old daughter (Termeh) a chance of a better life, while the husband (Nader) feels compelled to stay to look after his ailing and senile elderly father. Unable to reach a mutual decision and bound by the Iranian courts who prohibit Simin taking her daughter out of the country without Nader’s permission, the couple decide to separate. Termeh remains with her father while Simin moves out of the family home.
Incapable of looking after his father and working at the same time, Nader employs devout working class woman Razieh as home help and this is where the drama really begins, with Nader’s middle class pragmatic and no-nonsense approach to life clashing with Razieh’s outdated religious ideologies. Director Asghar Farhadi then continues to weave a mesh of deceit more intricate than a spider’s web, where no one seems to be telling the truth.
Winner of this year’s Golden Globe and nominated for the upcoming Oscars for best foreign language film.
“This powerful, complex Iranian drama centres on a conflict that cuts across boundaries of gender and class.” – The Guardian
Asghar Farhadi / Iran 2011 / 125 min / PG
Filed under: Films Tagged: Iranian cinema
Posted from Brockley Jack Film Club
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