A Separation is a suspenseful and intelligent drama detailing the fractures and tensions at the heart of Iranian society. When his wife (Leila Hatami) leaves him, Nader (Peyman Moadi) hires a young woman (Sareh Bayat) to take care of his suffering father (Ali-Asghar Shahbazi). But he doesn’t know his new maid is not only pregnant, but also working without her unstable husband’s (Shahab Hosseini) permission. Soon, Nader finds himself entangled in a web of lies manipulation and public confrontations.
Reviews
The Independent
Jonathan Romney
“...Farhadi has contrived a legal drama of absorbing complexity, with the restless camera – working within the ordinary spaces of flats and institutional corridors – reflecting a perpetual shifting of the moral viewpoint.”
03/07/2011
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The New Statesman
Ryan Gilbey
“There are no car chases in A Separation, no international espionage. Only a single punch is thrown in the course of its two hours and no one leaps daringly across rooftops in a hail of bullets. Yet this Iranian picture, which won the top prize at this year's Berlin Film Festival, has some claim on being the year's most explosive action movie and its most suspenseful thriller.”
30/06/2011
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The Observer
Jason Solomons
“A Separation is a remarkably poised marital thriller, full of surprise developments and suppressed volatility … The film develops into a complex moral dilemma that pitches religion against economics, one that brilliantly, and with creeping tension, encapsulates the tussles and fissures in Iranian society.”
03/07/2011
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The Daily Telegraph
Sukhdev Sandhu
“A Separation is a sophisticated, superbly acted and wholly gripping portrait of modern Iran. [The film ] twists and turns, layering on crucial details and moral quandaries in each scene, never for a moment allowing us the luxury of identifying too easily with any single character. The faultlines of class, gender and religion are deftly threaded into each dramatic situation. ”
30/06/2011
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Time Out
Dave Calhoun
“...lively and suspenseful as both drama and debate [A Separation] employs a tricksy moral compass that swings all over the place as we see its story from various viewpoints. It prods gently at middle-class entitlement of the how-can-this-be-happening-to-me variety, but it also avoids the trap of coming down on the side of less worldly characters.”
30/06/2011
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The Times
Kate Muir
“The dialogue has real honesty and naturalism … The camera peers through doors and windows, or sits disapprovingly behind the desks of officialdom, thanks to the work of the renowned cinematographer Mahmoud Kalari, who frames the film so tightly that you can feel the stress. Beyond the walls, the weight of a repressive state and religion hangs over all proceedings. A Separation leaves you poised on an emotional knife edge.”
01/07/2011
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Total Film
Tom Dawson
“Two hours speed by in this densely plotted, morally complex marital drama … Impressively shot and acted, A Separation refuses to judge its characters: everyone here has their reasons.”
15/06/2011
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The Scotsman
Alistair Harkness
“Though A Separation seems relatively straightforward on the surface, writer/director Asghar Farhadi deftly layers the drama with lies and recriminations that subtly alter our perceptions of the key players at various moments, presenting a portrait of modern Iran as an intensely complex country caught in the uneasy crossfire of modernity and repressive tradition.”
02/07/2011
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Empire Magazine
David Parkinson
“Restless camerawork emphasises both what is and isn’t said, revealing suspicions in a nation that is not nearly as united as its leaders would have us believe.”
01/07/2011
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The Guardian
Peter Bradshaw
“With great power and subtlety, Farhadi transforms this ugly quarrel into a contemporary tragedy.”
30/06/2011
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The Evening Standard
David Sexton
“If you see one seriously good, non-Hollywood film this summer, A Separation should be it. It won't put a skip into your step but it will leave you involved, moved, reconsidering your own actions and responsibilities - and you can't say that about the fatuities so proudly pumped out by the big studios these days.”
01/07/2011
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The Daily Express
Henry Fitzherbert
“...fraught, suspenseful and illuminating…”
01/07/2011
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The Financial Times
Antonia Quirke
“A bit of a slog, although fresh and even lyric in moments.”
29/06/2011
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