A Separation Review
By David Kempler
Divorce, Iranian Style
Asghar Farhadi's "A Separation" is the latest and perhaps greatest film to come from Iran in a long while. Iran has been exporting good product for quite a while despite being shackled by a government that stifles the industry.
"A Separation" is a simple tale of regular people leading regular lives in a culture quite different from what we are used to in America. Simin (Leila Hatami) and Naader (Peyman Moaadi) have recently separated. Simin has moved out, leaving Naader with their eleven-year-old daughter, Termeh, and Naader's father, who suffers from Alzheimer's.
The story is propelled when Naader hires a poor caretaker to help him tend to the needs of his dad and keep the household running smoothly even though the separation and his father's health has torn everyone's lives apart. Naader is a good man trying to find normalcy under difficult circumstances. This is not to say that Simin is bad in any way. She has valid reasons, at least in her mind, to move out. There are no real villains here.
Simin is seeking a divorce and we quickly learn that the courts operate quite a bit differently in Iran as opposed to America. In many ways they seem primitive by comparison. However, in other ways they seem more to the point and logical. There are no attorneys to interfere. In American divorce court, attorneys shake both sides upside-down until no money is left in their respective pockets and the litigation can drag on for years. In Iran, there is no profit motive. At least that is how the process works in this tale.
A controversy arises concerning the caretaker and Naader's father which results in a scene in the house of the caretaker. It is a powerful scene that never blatantly goes for the jugular, instead doing a slow burn that yields answers to the main questions of "A Separation".
"A Separation" is a mortal lock to garner a nomination for Best Foreign Film, and it will be a well-deserved nomination. I have yet to see all of the foreign films being mentioned as potential winners in that category, but I would be willing to go out on a limb and predict that "A Separation" will separate itself from the pack and bring the golden statue to Iran.
