Review of A Separation (2011) by Raheem H — 15 Nov 2012

On the surface, "A Separation" -- the movie and the title -- refers to the act a single Persian couple takes after a judge refuses to grant a divorce. But it also speaks to the alienating betrayals two mirror image families -- acted with startlingly authenticity by an unforgettable cast -- experience from each other, their society and themselves.

Underlining the implosive domestic conflict at the center of this outstanding film are the social and legal strings that alternately trip up and strangle the husbands, wives and daughters striving to hold their worlds together in modern-day Iran. It's that heartbreaking struggle that ultimately make their worlds fall apart. The tragic irony -- and the delicate way it's achieved -- makes "A Separation" recall, of all things, the works of Russian literary giants Dostoevsky and Chekhov.

Political subjugation dressed up as religious piety, inflation-fueled financial hardships and a maddeningly haphazard legal system all act as invisible yolks here. They're like the smog the denizens of this car-drenched country don't see but inhale, except they're insidiously more toxic.

Director Asghar Farhadi's incisive script marches his characters down the narrow chutes of an enclosed maze they don't know is rigged against them. The journey is tense and, ultimately, heartbreaking. The more his proud, sometimes prideful characters try to do what their religion, culture and internal moral compasses tell them is right, the more alone they become.