‘What is wrong is wrong, no matter who said it or where it’s written...’
Sometimes, in fact, often, there is no right or wrong, only perception. The fiercest rows in any situation emerge when both parties strongly believe that they are right. A Separation explores this disparity in devastating detail…
This Iranian classic opens in a divorce court with Simin (Leila Hatami) demanding a divorce from her husband Nader (Payman Maadi) because the latter refuses to leave his sick father (Ali-Asghar Shahbazi) behind to move away from their home in Iran. As a result, Simin leaves the family home, forcing Nader to hire Razieh (Sareh Bayat), a desperate pregnant woman with a violent husband (Shahab Hosseini), to help around the house. This fateful appointment leads to an incident that will change all of their lives forever.
The great strength of writer-director Asghar Farhadi’s film is that it allows us to think that we have all the information before repeatedly moving the goalposts. Each new revelation changes how we feel about the characters, and also casts the performances in a different light. Speaking of which, the four main cast members are all astonishingly good here. Hatami and Maadi run the full gamut of human emotion, both in their relationship with each other and in their interactions with other characters. Who is ultimately to blame for the tragedy that unfolds is immaterial, it is the way that everyone handles the situation that is so fascinating, and Farhadi’s show-stopping script had me utterly absorbed throughout. Had A Separation been an English language film, it would undoubtedly have won more than a solitary Oscar (Best Foreign Language Film), but at least Farhadi and his talented cast can settle for a place in the hallowed IMDB top #250 (#115 at the time of writing).
If you like the work of Ken Loach and Shane Meadows, filmmakers of substance, filmmakers with something to say, then you will love A Separation. Authentic cinema.