One of the best films of 2011, “A Separation” has a near-perfect script, brilliantly edited and acted, in a drama that resonates everywhere—the issues surrounding the breakup of a marriage. It won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, was nominated for Best Original Screenplay and previously won four awards at the Berlin International Film Festival, including the Golden Bear for Best Film.
This Iranian drama has a story that is both universal and specific to modern Iran. A well-educated middle-class couple struggles with the breakup of their marriage, and things are further complicated by the conflicted feelings of their young teen daughter; the challenges of caring for the husband’s confused, elderly father; and the problems of dealing with the Iranian legal system. The family issues and heartbreak are universal, but the film gives a remarkable glimpse specifically into life in modern Iran.
Those who are familiar with Iranian films are aware of their high quality. In addition to top-rate production values, strong acting and polished and accessible Western style filmmaking, Iranian films frequently display amazing fearlessness in tackling difficult topics facing their nation.
“A Separation” begins, and ends, with a couple going before a judge. The well-educated wife, Simin (Leila Hatami), is frustrated by the lack of opportunity for women in her country. She wants a divorce because her husband won’t emigrate, and she is hoping to take her daughter Terman (Sarina Farhadi) with her. Her husband Nader (Peyman Moadi) is a responsible, educated man who he is angry about his wife’s decision and fears losing his daughter. He refuses to leave their apartment, where they have been caring for his partially-disabled father, which complicates the divorce under Iranian law. In a culture where wives care for elderly relatives at home, hiring someone—particularly a woman—to care for an older man in a home where there is no wife is fraught with dangers under Islamic law.
Meanwhile, the couple’s daughter is torn between loyalties to both her parents, and does not fully comprehend what leaving the country could mean for her.
The script, which pulls all of these elements together and places them in a dramatic framework that is both personally dramatic and socially insightful, can only be described as genius.
The story is not only absorbing, but also filled with appealing characters the audience will care about. Thanks to these characters, the personal emotional context is never lost, yet the story still manages to make hard-hitting observations about the challenges of living under the Iranian legal system. Many challenges are universal to modern life, but not all; some are unique to Iran’s Islamic style of government.
None of this would work without excellent acting. Leila Hatami is wonderful as Simin, who seems wistful about leaving her husband but focused on her daughter’s future. Likewise, Peyman Moadi’s Nader seems like a man who is just trying to make his family life work but is angry at what he sees as his wife’s selfishness. There are no good guys or bad guys, just people trying to live their lives.
If there is a villain, it is the inflexible Iranian system, which complicates the characters’ personal lives on many levels. Even the young woman Nader hires to help with his father, who lies to him about her situation and puts him in danger, does so out of desperation over the circumstances that are due in part to her country’s laws towards women.
The film offers up no pat answers and ends with an open-ended situation that forces the audience to make up their own minds about which way the characters are going to go.
Simply put, this is an excellent drama, with a heartbreaking, tension-filled story and appealing characters that make it well worth the effort to read the subtitles.
“A Separation,” in Farsi with English subtitles, is now playing at the Plaza Frontenac Cinema.
Grade: A
by Cate Marquis, A&E editor for The Current.
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