A Separation (2011)
"Jodaeiye Nader az Simin" (original title)

A married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.

Director:

Asghar Farhadi

Writer:

Asghar Farhadi

Stars:

Peyman Moaadi, Leila Hatami, Sareh Bayat

Top 250 #106 | Won 1 Oscar. Another 58 wins & 21 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Peyman Moaadi	...	Nader
Leila Hatami	...	Simin
Sareh Bayat	...	Razieh
Shahab Hosseini	...	Hojjat
Sarina Farhadi	...	Termeh
Merila Zare'i	...	Miss Ghahraii
Ali-Asghar Shahbazi	...	Nader's Father
Babak Karimi	...	Interrogator
Kimia Hosseini	...	Somayeh
Shirin Yazdanbakhsh	...	Simin's Mother
Sahabanu Zolghadr	...	Azam
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mohammadhasan Asghari	...	Creditor
Shirin Azimiyannezhad	...	Woman in the Bus
Hamid Dadju	...	Creditor
Mohammad Ebrahimian	...	Judge

Storyline

Nader (Peyman Moaadi) and Simin (Leila Hatami) argue about living abroad. Simin prefers to live abroad to provide better opportunities for their only daughter, Termeh. However, Nader refuses to go because he thinks he must stay in Iran and take care of his father (Ali-Asghar Shahbazi), who suffers from Alzheimers. However, Simin is determined to get a divorce and leave the country with her daughter.

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Plot Keywords:

iran | divorce | alzheimer's disease | humanity | visa | 

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Taglines:

Ugly truth, sweet lies

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material

Details

Official Sites:

Golem Distribución [Spain] Memento Films [France]

Country:

Iran

Language:

Persian

Release Date:

16 March 2011 (Iran)

Also Known As:

Nader y Simin, una separación

Filming Locations:

Tehran, Iran

Box Office

Budget:

$500,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$59,481 (USA) (30 December 2011)

Gross:

$7,098,492 (USA) (15 June 2012)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Asghar Farhadi

Technical Specs

Runtime:

123 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

First Iranian film to receive nomination for an Academy Award in the Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (or Best Original Screenplay) category. However, the award went to Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris.

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Goofs

At 1:39:53 when Simin and Hojjat's sister are talking to Hojjat,the fan behind Hojjat is on at first, but in next scenes its off and facing a different angle.

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Quotes

Termeh: Didn't you say it's not serious?
Nader: It got serious.

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Connections

Follows Fireworks Wednesday (2006)

User Reviews

You be the judge...

I'm an Iranian, but I've never been interested in Iranian cinema. I only watch Iranian films when they win awards or receive international recognition. I'm a fan of Kiarostami and Majidi, but I can't really say that I like all of their films. I watched Farhady's previous film (About Elly) about a year ago, and the first thing which struck me was how culturally detached the movie was in its depiction of an event. At the time, I believed this to have been the cause of this director's success. Watching Nader and Simin, however, proved that I was terribly mistaken.

Asghar Farhady's obsession with the concept of judgment is once again the driving force behind his latest feature. The life-like depiction of the Iranian courtroom (which is in no way impartial) places the audience in the Judge's seat from the very beginning. The extremely believable acting and insanely complex script compel the viewer to make up his/her mind just like when reading a court case. As for the screenplay, I'm almost certain the events in this film actually happened in real life, because in no way could one fabricate such a chaotically complex series of events, so beautifully woven into a coherent whole.

Despite being very Iranian in its narrative style and its depiction of Iranian culture (the sanctity of Family, faith, commitment towards parents and married life), I believe that this film could easily appeal to the Western audiences just like a film by Inaritu or Haneke (although I'm pretty sure it won't be nominated for an Oscar for political reasons).

After seeing About Elly, I thought Farhady's success was just a one-time fling, but coming out of the theater, having watched Nader and Simin, I was proud to have another Iranian director added to my international list of favorites.