A Separation: an Iranian detective story without any detectives

iran movie
Leila Hatami as Simin Photo by Habib Madjidi/Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
iran movie

Leila Hatami as Simin Photo by Habib Madjidi/Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Sitting before an unseen judge, Simin (Leila Hatami) asks for a divorce from her husband Nader (Peyman Moadi). They have finally received visas to leave Iran with their daughter and work abroad but he refuses to leave his father, in the later stages of Alzheimer’s, behind. Finding no valid grounds under the law, the judge refuses to grant the decree, telling her instead that she is free to separate.

She shouts at Nader, “Does he even know you are his son?” “I know that he is my father,” he replies.

Upset but unwilling to leave without her 11-year-old daughter Termeh, who has chosen to stay with her father, Simin separates and moves into her mother’s home. As Simin had been the primary caretaker of Nader’s father, Nader must now find someone to watch after him. Based on Simin’s recommendation and desperate for help, Nader chooses expediency over better judgment and hires Razieh (Sareh Bayat) a poor, very religious woman with secrets that will eventually be the undoing of everyone. Secrets, misunderstandings, lies and an accident lead to a perfect storm of legal and familial difficulties when Razieh’s unemployed, brutish and desperate husband Hodjat (Shahab Hosseini) becomes involved.

Seemingly slight, the story of “A Separation” is like the loose thread on a sweater that when pulled, unravels the entire garment leaving nothing but yarn on the floor. The director, Asghar Farhadi, considered his film to be “a detective story without any detectives.” The puzzle pieces are not interlocking and may not even belong to the same set. There are no answers, only questions. Farhadi also gives us a view into today’s secular Iranian justice – a seemingly informal system wherein parties bring their complaints to a judge who makes his decision based on answers to the questions he poses. What seems to be a black and white legal system based on the bright line of guilt and innocence, is far more complicated than it appears as each of the injured parties must find ways to make their interpretation of the incidents and extenuating circumstances become truth, for if one party is innocent then the other must be guilty. As more people become involved in the process, the plaintiffs and defendants, for each side is simultaneously both, travel down a road of white lies that become magnified, adding more personal and religious dimension.

Cultural and religious differences between the parties and the personal definition of honor and obligation all play a role in this drama of disintegrating families. And even though money or lack of it is not the chief theme or even motivating factor, this is a society that still thrives on “blood money,” which can be interpreted varyingly as extortion, punitive damages or even honor payment, depending on the circumstance. Further, “A Separation” is not actually about guilt or innocence, because everyone within this story is both guilty and innocent. Farhadi has presented us with the more universal and complicated theme of honor – how one is viewed, whether by self or family or outsiders – and how destructive a concept it can be.

Interestingly, the director/writer gives us no external clues. Brilliantly he has posited his questions and dilemmas so that they are open-ended, depending entirely upon what the viewer brings to the table in terms of past experience and personal emotional involvement. Following the film, I was engaged in conversation with two other audience members and all three of us had radically different interpretations of the ending and the main characters. Remarkably, each of us, while steadfastly clinging to his or her own view, was able to see the logic and emotion behind the other opinions.

In Farsi with English subtitles, the film is totally absorbing thanks in no small part to the expressive faces and deeply felt emotions projected by the protagonists, dredging up personal feelings and reactions that may surprise you.

Opening December 30 at the Laemmle Royal in West L.A. Don’t miss it.

Neely also writes a blog about writers in television and film.

 

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