Movie review: A Separation

by Alex Bentley

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The lesson? Never commit a crime in Iran.

One of the biggest benefits to watching a foreign film – any foreign film – is being immersed in a culture other than your own. Sure, some mainstream films take you to different countries, but they rarely give you the full experience. The best foreign films, even if they aren’t documentaries, have the power to enlighten and even change your perception about what it means to actually live there.

A Separation, set in modern-day Iran, delivers that in spades. It centers around a husband and wife, Nader and Simin (Peyman Maadi and Leila Hatami), who are separating due to a disagreement over what (and where) should be their future. They argue their cases in front of a judge, but instead of a courtroom setting like you’d see in the U.S., they’re in a nondescript office, with the judge able to make the final decision over their separation.

The lone judge and mundane location will become increasingly familiar over A Separation’s two-hour running time, with the stakes growing on each visit. The judge’s decision at the beginning of the film sets into motion a series of events that are relatively innocuous on their own, but close to devastating when they’re combined. By the end of the film, the lives of two families will have been affected in an indelible way.

Writer/director Asghar Farhadi does a fantastic job of delving the audience into Iranian society, showing just how much religion and social mores dictate everyday life there. In an American film, the arguments that crop up would lead to extended yelling at best and violence at worst. Here, however, people more often than not take care never to step over a certain line, lest they offend others or their god. That also means that serious criminal matters are sometimes handled by a single person, a baffling yet fascinating look into the Iranian judicial system.

Based on how the film begins, Hatami curiously has much less screen time than her on-screen husband Maadi. Both, however, turn in solid performances showing their characters evolving emotions as events spiral further and further out of control. Also great is Sareh Bayat, playing Razieh, a caretaker brought in to look after Nader’s father, who’s afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease. The struggles Razieh faces, both physically and emotionally, are registered all over Bayat’s weary face.

A Separation rarely, if ever, goes how you might expect it go, a testament to both the filmmaking skills of Farhadi and the unfamiliarity of Iranian society. The film, which is nominated for two Oscars, is well worth your time.

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