The puzzling web of truth
A strong story, good casting, tight editing. Asghar Farhadi has the perfect recipe for fantastic cinema with A Separation,
Post revolution, there came a phase in Iran when cinema was feared dead. Films were banned en masse, movie halls were shut, filmmakers — portrayed as evil-doers — were forced to flee.
Then Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, the country’s Supreme Leader, quite serendipitously caught Dariush Mehrjui’s Gaav (The Cow) — a film set in rural Iran — on television and decided to ease the noose. Filmmakers could once again do their jobs as long as they adhered to the tight code set by the ministry of culture. Not easy but yes, it is possible to make meaningful cinema without inviting the wrath of a paranoid government, Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation (in Persian: Jodái-e Náder az Simin, ‘The separation of Nader from Simin’) proves.
A Separation is a true to life, deceptively simple family tale that will annoy none, puzzle many, and cajole you into questioning notions of truth, right and wrong. Farhadi gently questions the validity or authenticity of something purporting to be factual without showing any contempt for accepted standards of honesty or morality.
The film opens with Nader (played by Peyman Moaadi) and Simin (Leila Hatami), a modern middle-class Iranian couple, fighting before court for divorce. Simin applied for it as she wants them to emigrate with their 11-year-old daughter, Termeh. Nader doesn’t agree as his father has Alzheimer’s and needs constant care. The court dismisses Simin’s application, and she moves out to her parents’ house. Now, following Simin’s suggestion, Nader hires a caregiver, Razieh, to tend to his father. Razieh is poor, pregnant, has a young daughter and a hot-tempered husband. She has religious qualms about taking care of an incontinent old man. She badly needs the money, and so overlooks her uneasiness. She slips up at work, Nader panics and pushes her out of the house. Next day, Simin hears that Razieh was in hospital. Worried, she and Nader visit and learn that Razieh miscarried. Her husband, Houjat, blames Nader for killing his four-and-a-half-month-old son, and presses man-slaughter charges on him.
That’s just the premise. The rest of the movie, Rashomon-style, is about the truth, or rather the many truths. Every character carries guilt and fear, each scene adds to the tangle, and the crescendo builds. Right and wrong, ego, truth and morality, socio-cultural divide in Iranian society, marital equations, child custody struggle and demands of age-related infirmities form layers that tug at you. Farhadi’s mastery is at how he presents these issues subtly, more as undercurrents. He doesn’t nudge you to the truth or let you take sides. Instead he forces you to puzzle over them. He lets scepticism play but not the Persian brand of cynicism.
Critics have already predicted that A Separation would be an enduring masterpiece. The film has bagged most of the Foreign Language Film awards at earlier ceremonies, and it will be little surprise if the Oscar goes to its kitty as well.
A strong story, good casting, tight editing. Asghar Farhadi has the perfect recipe for fantastic cinema with A Separation,
Post revolution, there came a phase in Iran when cinema was feared dead. Films were banned en masse, movie halls were shut, filmmakers — portrayed as evil-doers — were forced to flee.
Then Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, the country’s Supreme Leader, quite serendipitously caught Dariush Mehrjui’s Gaav (The Cow) — a film set in rural Iran — on television and decided to ease the noose. Filmmakers could once again do their jobs as long as they adhered to the tight code set by the ministry of culture. Not easy but yes, it is possible to make meaningful cinema without inviting the wrath of a paranoid government, Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation (in Persian: Jodái-e Náder az Simin, ‘The separation of Nader from Simin’) proves.
A Separation is a true to life, deceptively simple family tale that will annoy none, puzzle many, and cajole you into questioning notions of truth, right and wrong. Farhadi gently questions the validity or authenticity of something purporting to be factual without showing any contempt for accepted standards of honesty or morality.
The film opens with Nader (played by Peyman Moaadi) and Simin (Leila Hatami), a modern middle-class Iranian couple, fighting before court for divorce. Simin applied for it as she wants them to emigrate with their 11-year-old daughter, Termeh. Nader doesn’t agree as his father has Alzheimer’s and needs constant care. The court dismisses Simin’s application, and she moves out to her parents’ house. Now, following Simin’s suggestion, Nader hires a caregiver, Razieh, to tend to his father. Razieh is poor, pregnant, has a young daughter and a hot-tempered husband. She has religious qualms about taking care of an incontinent old man. She badly needs the money, and so overlooks her uneasiness. She slips up at work, Nader panics and pushes her out of the house. Next day, Simin hears that Razieh was in hospital. Worried, she and Nader visit and learn that Razieh miscarried. Her husband, Houjat, blames Nader for killing his four-and-a-half-month-old son, and presses man-slaughter charges on him.
That’s just the premise. The rest of the movie, Rashomon-style, is about the truth, or rather the many truths. Every character carries guilt and fear, each scene adds to the tangle, and the crescendo builds. Right and wrong, ego, truth and morality, socio-cultural divide in Iranian society, marital equations, child custody struggle and demands of age-related infirmities form layers that tug at you. Farhadi’s mastery is at how he presents these issues subtly, more as undercurrents. He doesn’t nudge you to the truth or let you take sides. Instead he forces you to puzzle over them. He lets scepticism play but not the Persian brand of cynicism.
Critics have already predicted that A Separation would be an enduring masterpiece. The film has bagged most of the Foreign Language Film awards at earlier ceremonies, and it will be little surprise if the Oscar goes to its kitty as well.
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