A Separation by Asghar Farhadi

An unhappily married couple wants to split up. Simin wants to leave Iran for her daughter’s future, but Nader refuses to emigrate because his old father is Alzheimer’s ravaged. The film starts in court where both try to explain situation from their own perspectives. As man and woman sit apart, avoiding looking to each other, we have a feeling that they have already separated. We cannot see the exact figure of the judge, as the characters talk directly to the camera. Audience becomes a judge and this happens to be the key to the whole film.

One mistake leads to another and terrible mess starts. As in his previous film About Elly Asghar Farhadi is interested not in action itself but in consequences it may cause and, most importantly, in reactions and moral dilemmas of people. Characters in the film are separated from each other by sex, age, social class or religious beliefs, yet they all make the same mistakes when they try to convince themselves that a small lie is not really a lie.

There is no other word to describe the acting besides brilliant. Every similarity as well as every single difference is shown as clear as possible, avoiding exaggeration or overacting. Clear structure of the narrative and powerful dialogues create an atmosphere of being right in the middle of what is happening, feeling the same anxiety and suspense as the characters feel. Farhadi doesn’t take sides. In this psychologically complex drame he uses clear and sensitive voice to prove that usually we cannot blame just one or another – everyone may be right, everyone may be wrong.

by Monika GimbutaitÄ—