A SEPARATION

A SEPARATION is an intricately plotted, extremely well-acted glimpse from Iran of how one seemingly simple decision for a marital separation leads to a string of morally complex problems. It’s Iran’s official entry into the Best Foreign Film Oscar contest.

The story follows the marriage of Nader and Simin, a couple who are married 14 years and have an 11-year-old daughter, Termeh. The wife, Simin, wants to get them visas and move to another country so Termeh can have greater life opportunities than a strict Muslim country can provide a woman, but Nader can’t move, since his elderly father has Alzheimer’s Disease and he has to live with them.

Simin opts for a marital separation when the judge won’t grant her a divorce. She is soon sucked back into the family’s lives when Nader is accused of pushing and causing the miscarriage of Razieh, a poor woman hired as a caretaker for Nader’s father. One day Razieh neglects to care for the father properly one day, leaving him near death while she went to visit a pre-natal doctor. Nader gets angry and shoves her out the door, which may have caused her to fall and have a miscarriage.

Nader is charged with murder for his potential role in causing the miscarriage, as Islamic law considers an unborn baby a full person who has a right to life and whose death must be avenged. As he tries to tell his side of the story, Nader finds that his own wife and daughter don’t believe him at times. As Razieh’s husband gets more and more angry about the miscarriage, it’s revealed that numerous people have motives to say Nader is either guilty or innocent in helping cause the miscarriage. Who’s lying and who’s telling the truth?

A SEPARATION proves to have one of the best-written scripts this year. It will keep viewers guessing and arguing about who is right and wrong, and how they themselves would have handled the movie’s moral quandaries.

A SEPARATION handles its many intense situations with admirable restraint, including a minimum of questionable language. While there are numerous verbal arguments and some scenes of brief violence, Director Asghar Farhadi keeps viewers from clearly seeing a couple key moments. This results in a strong sense of mystery throughout the movie until the story’s final shocking revelations.

With superb acting and brilliant writing, A SEPARATION offers an intelligent, profound exploration of morality, duty, honor, pride, and sin for discerning older teenagers and adults. As such, it’s a complex family drama. However, the movie’s set in the Islamic nation of Iran. Thus, its characters refer to the Koran as their holy book, but not in a proselytizing way. Islam is more like the background to the story, although it becomes clear that some characters wish they could break free from the rigid system of Islamic law and others are trying to abide by it completely, especially the woman who loses her baby. Because of the references to Islam and the subject matter, including the separation between the main married couple, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.