Feb 13, 2014 06:15 AM
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(Updated Feb 14, 2014 09:32 AM)
Iran has produced some of the best and most artful filmmakers anywhere. They take us inside the Iran we almost never see, the country as it's actually lived day to day.
No Iranian film has done this more accessibly than A Separation. Written and directed by Asghar Farhadi, this film is smart, gripping and beautifully acted — it feels like a thriller even though it wasn't meant to be. It thoroughly deserved to win the Oscar for the best foreign film.
Don't go expecting lavish cinematography, this feels like it has been shot on hand held cameras, and under normal tube lights, which makes most of the indoor scenes have a bluish hue.
But that is highly appropriate because this movie has a sense of voyeurism throughout as the intensely private happenings of a family, and perhaps country, in turmoil steadily build up into a thrilling climax.
The story begins with a woman, Simin, played by the gorgeous Leila Hatami, trying to convince a magistrate to let her divorce her husband, Nader, portrayed outstandingly by Peyman Moadi. Nader refuses to emigrate to Europe with her and their teenage daughter Termeh, because he wants to stay to take care of his aging father who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
While this may sound like a normal divorce story —The director Farhadi quickly spins things off in startling directions. The upper-middle-class Nader hires a devout working-class woman, Razieh, to look after his father. But Razieh hasn't asked her hotheaded traditionalist husband, Houjat, for permission to take the job. Soon there is a small scuffle between nader and razieh. because he things razieh was not taking care of here father and was also stealing from his house and forcefully throws her out. The authorities get involved, and through a series of clever, revealing plot twists that I won't spoil for you, we start seeing everyone in the movie from a different perspective.
We see how the differing views of Simin and Nader lead to a power struggle between the couple. She wants to get away from the old patriarchal way of life in iran, while he, though sensitive and decent, is grappling with the loss of male power in a family. And in Nader's bitter dispute with Razieh and Houjat, you see a clash that is often seen in our surroundings, between upper class and lower class families who have very different views on the same thing.
Yet what makes the movie so good is that Farhadi never makes you feel as though you're watching a movie. You're watching living, breathing characters who turn out to be far more complicated than you first think they are. Nobody is a villain here. Everybody has their reasons for acting in a particular manner.
The devout, downtrodden Razieh has secrets; her angry husband Houjat is actually a good, caring man; Simin loves her husband, while he adores their daughter, Termeh — and craves her respect. In fact, it isTermeh, who passes the final verdict on who is right and who is wrong.
There are scenes in the movie that are very impressive: When Nader is giving his father a bath, he starts crying thinking about the condtition his father is in. It shows us how a child loves his parents no matter if they are too old or sick. In addition, when Termeh asks her father about the reason that he told a big lie to the court, we can understand how children pay close attention to their parents' behavior and view their parents as role models.
A Separation is a movie that keeps expanding. In the process, Farhadi turns the story of one couple's collapsing marriage into the picture of an entire society. We see its unshakable views and fanaticism, its explosions of violence and small moments of tenderness, its stubborn men who refuse to lose even if it means lying, and women who believe in telling the truth, when it suits them.
The film never resorts to flashy elements to proceed its story - it has no need to - and proves that sincerity in all its forms whether it be in writing, acting, or directing, no matter the budget nor technical limitations, can result in work of the highest quality.
To put it simply, A SEPARATION is arguably one of the most impressive low budget dramas in recent memory. Don't miss this one.
