just watch it!

Awesome Movie

A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

The first foreign movie i've ever watch and it didn't disappoint me at all. It just feels so real for me. I love this Movie and I want to find and watch the other movie which is has the same genre as this one.

I would be hard pressed to come up with another movie that keeps the viewer so conflicted and anxious about the characters over the course of it's run time. There's literally no down time to catch a breather here because virtually every scene involves the principal players bickering with each other, over matters that are not trivial. I was particularly intrigued by the daughter Termeh (Sarina Farhadi, daughter of director Asghar Faradi), caught between two parents who can't come to terms over mother Simin's (Leila Hatami) desire to leave Iran for a better life, and father Nader (Peyman Noadi), who harbors a strong sense of duty to remain and care for his own, Alzheimer's afflicted father.Following the incident with housekeeper Razieh (Sareh Bayat), Termeh acts as her father's conscience, constantly prodding him with questions about what happened and his culpability in Razieh's miscarriage. Though her best advice is for Nader to tell the truth in court, it was with great insecurity that she appeared before the judge to answer questions about what she knew or had observed or overheard among the various parties involved. She answered honestly about knowledge of a doctor's phone number shared between her tutor and Razieh, but for all that, she was able to evade the question of whether her father knew about Razieh's pregnancy, because the judge never asked her about it. That knowledge about the pregnancy was crucial to the judge's understanding of what happened and how he would deal with the case. So in effect, Termeh did not follow her own advice and was severely conflicted over her decision.As good and as tightly scripted this story was about the conflicts between the parties, the primary thing that bothered me about it was how the plaintiff's side (Razieh and husband Hojjat), consistently talked to the defendant's side (Nader and Simin) throughout the story. Sometimes the conversation was cordial, at other times confrontational. That did not resemble the American system of justice that I'm familiar with, and I can only assume that strictures among opposing parties are different in some way in Iran. Perhaps because each side was operating without an attorney before the judge had something to do with it. Still, it was odd to see how the parties came together to put together a monetary settlement, even if Nader was not going to go along with it.The picture concludes with as much ambiguity as everything leading up to it, and the viewer is challenged to come up with their own interpretation of who Termeh will agree to live with following this ordeal. There are compelling reasons why she would pick one parent over the other that work for either choice, so the question remains, what would you do? I have my idea, but you'll have to watch the film to come up with your own.

I was six years late to see this movie. I had downloaded this movie about 3 years back and was in my back up drive awaiting a watch. I watched it recently (2017) and I thank myself for making that decision because it opens up new vocabulary of cinema to students like us.The director Asghar Farhadi had seen a visual of a young man washing an old man – most probably his father, and that image stuck Asghar's mind that set the ball rolling to develop a story around it. This was the first Iranian movie to win an Oscar. It appeared in the top 250 films IMDb list and is mentioned in 1000 movies to see before you die.For those who are can't understand Persian I am including spoilers to understand and enjoy the movie better because the dialogues are fast and lengthy and it is difficult to catch them and keep track on first viewing.Simin (Leila Hatami) wants to leave Iran – either her husband Nader (Peyman Moaadi) and their daughter Termeh (Sarina Farhadi – director's real life daughter) come along with her or else she will divorce her husband. But husband can't leave his ailing egging father (Ali-Asghar Shahbazi) who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease.Nader hires a pregnant Razieh (Sareh Bayat) who comes along with her daughter Somayeh (Kimla Hosseni) as a care-taker.An incident happens when Nader pushes care-taker Razieh out of the house on accusation of not properly taking care of his Dad and for robbing money. Razieh undergoes abortion and her husband Hojjat (Shahbad Hosseini) puts a case of murder against Nader.How all these characters interact and accuse each other, and each try to protect relationships, show humanity, and seek justice makes the rest of the movie.Each character has its own convincing persona that we can empathize with. Who is right? Who is wrong? How the events unfold the way they do – whom to blame – it is so beautifully presented with a fluid story telling.The plot is simple but the treatment is complex in terms of the facets of underlying human and cultural nuances popping up every now and then. The actors are top class. There is no music in the movie except the end titles. The movie is shot with hand-held camera. Editing is superb. The dialogues are layered and runs sub-plots that the audience have to weave together. Thus the movie makes the audience part of the proceeding – putting the view in middle of the family as a witness and observer. Superb..!The screenplay the way it unfolds is like a thriller, and lots of questions remain unanswered till the end of the movie but the movie surely leaves a few signs for the viewers to detect the missing clues.As the movie is already 6 years old, I am leaving a few spoilers for filling up the missing clues - that are not shown in the movie...First, the robbing of money accusation is false because Nader's wife Simin might have paid the money to workers who charges her extra for a work. Second, Nader pushing Razieh does not kill the child, but the child is killed a few days earlier when Razieh is hit by a car on the road in an attempt to bring Nader's father home. Third, the end of the movie showing both Nader and Simin wearing black clothes signify that the father is now dead and still they are going for divorce. Fourth, the ending is open – as the daughter's decision of - with whom she will go – father or mother - is not revealed and it is kept for the audience to guess based on what is shown in the movie.This was Director Asghar's fifth movie. Recently in 2017 his movie Salesman again won the Best Foreign Film award at the Oscars - his second Oscar.A movie is a must see for all movie buffs in terms understanding the art of cinema on how to integrate complex cultural pathos and broken human relationships with empathy where we as audience do not find fault with any character.I give it 8 out of 10

A Separation captures your attention so well because it deals with everybody's fear of trying hard, but ending up with nothing. It seems like the characters in the movie tries their hardest but still falls short, because of their flaws. I recommend it for its honesty and frankness, I do not recommend it for a Friday night movie with friends.