A Separation (Farhadi, 2011)

Last updated on: February 27, 2015 at 8:11 pm by Kenneth R. Morefield

A Separation (Farhadi, 2011) 2015-02-27T20:11:55-05:00 Kenneth R. Morefield

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A Separation

Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation is a riveting domestic drama that works equally well as a character study and a social critique. An ensemble cast without a weak link helps illustrate an infuriating–at times almost despair inducing–culture where a caretaker has to call a religious hotline to confirm whether or not it is a sin to change the pants of an elderly Alzhiemer’s patient who has wet himself and a woman who applies for a job without her husband’s permission can face legal sanctions.

I have seen a number of contemporary Iranian films over the years at The Toronto International Film Festival, but what separates A Separation from films like Offiside, When Buddha Collapsed From Shame, or My Tehran for Sale is the way that it manages to have empathy for men and women, rich and poor alike, showing how good people caught in a web of harsh circumstances can eventually succumb to accumulated pressures created by just trying to survive.

The film starts with the two principals appearing before a judge, each giving their reasons for wanting to separate. At that start, it appears that this will be another examination of how difficult the conditions are for women in a religious patriarchy. But then the film follows the husband, Nader (a superb Peyman Moaadi) as he attempts to secure a caretaker for his elderly, invalid father, shuttle his daughter to and from school, and work enough to pay the family’s bills.

It is crucial that in a work director Farhadi told the audience at the Toronto International Film Festival was as much an illustration of class warfare as it was about familial conflict that we see Nader as something more than a cartoon villain. He can ask for leniency towards a man who has infuriated him, risk jail rather than tell his daughter a lie.

The heart of the movie may be in a scene where the daughter attempts to understand how her parents, her father especially, must wrestle with shades of gray in a culture that only sees sin and white and punishes accordingly. As the ripples of the internal separation continue, nearly every character is forced to draw and test the lines where personal integrity meet unfair, at times horrific, circumstances.

One of the things I appreciated most about A Separation is how it illustrated how a fundamentalist mindset (be it cultural or personal) often forces a person to choose between public rigtheousness and simple, human decency, how the simplest of moral precepts when hardened by law and wielded by imperfect, fallen beings can become a boulder that grinds people rather than a light that guides them.

It felt fitting that on the tenth anniversary of September 11, 2001, I saw a film that reminded the audience how similar are the problems, longings, and fears of people from different cultures, how fear is not the same thing as evil, and how righteousness is not the same as love.

Reviews

Toronto International Film Festival 2011

Asghar Farhadi

Toronto International Film Festival

Previous Post

August 21, 2011

Dear Uncle Adolf: The Germans and Their Fuhrer (Kloft, 2010)

Next Post

September 14, 2011 The Kid With a Bike (Dardenne & Dardenne, 2011)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 10 Years Later 1999 Top 5 2007 Top 10 2008 Favorite Discoveries 2008 Top 10 2009 Favorite Discoveries 2009 Top 10 2010 Favorite Discoveries 2010 Top 10 2011 Top 10 2012 Top Ten 2013 Top Ten 2014 Top Ten Best Picture Winners Christian Spotlight on Entertainment Christianity Today Coming Soon Disclosure Disclosure--AS Disclosure--Book Disclosure--DVDS Disclosure--SEOL Disclosure--Travel Dissenting Opinion Elsewhere Emergenetics Essays Featured Film Fest DC--2014 Film Festivals Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2010 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2011 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2012 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2013 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2014 Headline Interviews Laura on the Oscar Winners Podcasts Quick Impressions Reviews RiverRun Film Festival 2014 Television The Criterion Collection The Thin Place To Stream or Not to Stream? Top 10s and Other Lists Toronto International Film Festival 2009 Toronto International Film Festival 2010 Toronto International Film Festival 2011 Toronto International Film Festival 2012 Toronto International Film Festival 2013 Toronto International Film Festival 2014 Uncategorized Video Virginia Film Festival 2011 Virginia Film Festival 2013 Women's Film Festival 2012

Select a Month February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which tribe first accepted David as king after Saul's death?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Dan Benjamin Ephraim Judah