Review: A Separation (2011)

[Mark Leeper]

A SEPARATION
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

CAPSULE: This is a film about moral issues and about
decent but imperfect people who have serious decisions
to make. It does not oversimplify and writer/director
Asghar Farhadi does not take sides. Farhadi does not
talk down to his viewer and he trusts his audience to
make their own decisions. In his world reasonable
people can still end up in perplexing moral conflicts.
This is adult filmmaking in the best senses of that term.
Rating: low +3 (-4 to +4) or 8/10

Rob Reiner's A FEW GOOD MEN, with screenplay by Aaron Sorkin, pits
Tom Cruise as Lt. Kaffee against Jack Nicholson as Col. Jessup on a
debatable point about defense policy. The poor audience might well
have sided with the wrong person. Luckily the filmmakers had Jack
Nicholson smoke cigars and make male chauvinist comments, so the
audience has clear signals that Nicholson is a bad man and his
arguments must be bad. Reiner makes clear that Tom Cruise's
character will always be in the right. It is convenient to have
the filmmakers make the issue so unambiguous. They do not confuse
the audience with complex issues of ethics or take the chance that
someone might come out of the theater having sided with the wrong
side. Nice safe movies do much better at the box office.

Films that trust the audience members to think about a complex
issue and make up their own minds are rare. The last film I
remember like that was THE HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG. Perhaps neither
side of the moral question in that film is entirely right, but
neither is entirely wrong either, and arguably each is more right
than wrong. A SEPARATION is about complex moral issues that are
not tied up and gift-wrapped for the viewer. The film, written and
directed by Iranian Asghar Farhadi, begins with the conflicts
already occurring. Simin (played by Leila Hatami) and Nader
(Peyman Maadi) are presenting their cases before a judge. Simin
would like a divorce. She wants Nader and their daughter Termeh
(Sarina Farhadi) to leave the country, but she would settle for a
divorce so she could leave Nader behind. This is not a society
that she wants to bring Termeh up in. Reasonable as her concerns
are, her husband Nader does not think he is free to go. His father
(Ali-Asghar Shahbazi) is in advanced stages of Alzheimer's. Even
though Nader's father no longer even recognizes his son, Nader
feels he is honor-bound to care for his father, just as Simin feels
she must provide a better life for Termeh than she would have in
Iran. The secular judge does not really decide for either person
but chooses not to consider the case. But under Islamic Law all
decisions rest with the husband and if Nader remains steadfast the
court will not interfere or even decide for either husband or wife.

Simin leaves Nader and goes to live with her parents after finding
a daytime caregiver for Nader's father. Raziah (Sareh Bayat) takes
the job but is overwhelmed by the deteriorating condition of
Nader's father. He now requires someone to clean him, but in this
theocratic society a woman seeing the unclothed body of an adult,
male non-family-member is considered a sin. In addition, due to an
unavoidable incident Nader's father comes near death. In Nader's
rage Raziah is fired and forcefully shoved out the door--an action
that would later have serious consequences.

The story is just about a simple domestic problem, but it has moral
twists at every turn. These are people who interest the viewer and
their problems are as engrossing--make that more engrossing--than
watching Tom Cruise climbing around on s skyscraper. Like the
court, Farhadi refuses to take sides in the issue. He presents a
complex moral situation and looks at how Iranian society with its
class structure and its religious demands complicates the issue.

Among other things the film does is show how much differently a
theocracy is from a society like we are used to in the West. The
dictates of the religion hang over all the conflict in the film.
Finding a care-giver for Nader's father is made nearly impossible
since the religion will not allow a woman to see the body of a man
not in her family out of fear that they are going to have sex,
something that is not the remotest possibility in the situation
here. Raziah cannot take the job without her husband's permission
because the religion gives him dominion over her. And because
Raziah cannot be trusted to make these decisions for herself
(heaven forbid) there are telephone hotlines to mullahs who make
often out-of-touch decisions about what is or is not allowed by the
religion.

Asghar Farhadi recognizes that he does not need an earth-shattering
premise to make a compelling film. One can find complex and
engrossing moral dilemmas on every street. And he realizes the
value of not bulling his way into the telling to make sure the
viewer reaches the same conclusions he does. We are used to
didactic "message" stories. So a film that takes a balanced
attitude on the issues and respects the viewer gives a real feeling
of freedom to come to his/her own conclusions. I rate A SEPARATION
a low +3 on the -4 to +4 scale or 8/10.

Film Credits: <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1832382/>

What others are saying:
<http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_separation_2011/>


Mark R. Leeper
mle...@optonline.net
Copyright 2012 Mark R. Leeper