Starring: Peyman Moadi, Leila Hatami, Sarina Farhadi, Sareh Bayat, Shahab Hosseini
Director: Ashgar Farhadi
Category: IIA (Persian)
When Ashgar Farhadi's film toured the festival circuit last year, it was known as Nader and Simin, A Separation. Rather than losing something, the shortened version took on the multiple layers of meaning the Iranian filmmaker ingrained the film with. It also won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film on Tuesday.
Here, a marital breakdown serves as the springboard for an examination of the gaping divides across gender, class and generation. The film examines the schisms between its characters and how such interpersonal conflicts play out in contemporary Iran.
The latter aspect comes into focus early on: Nader (Peyman Moadi) and Simin (Leila Hatami, above right with Moadi) are arguing in front of an unseen judge about their divorce.
Simin, a teacher, wants to move to Europe; Nader refuses, citing the need for him to care for his senile and homebound father. The couple also battle for the right to keep their 11-year-old daughter, Termeh (Sarina Farhadi).
'I don't want my child to live under these circumstances,' Simin says. While chastising Simin about her disrespect of her country, the court official says it is up to the couple to make the necessary settlement for a break-up.
What appears as the authorities' refusal to intervene in affairs within the private sphere is, of course, bogus. Farhadi precedes the couple's row with the image of identity documents being photocopied - a statement which speaks volumes about the invisible hands looming large over the lives of the country's citizens.