Tag Archives: Asghar Farhadi

A Separation

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A Separation (in Persian: جدایی نادر از سیمین‎ Jodái-e Náder az Simin, “The separation of Nader from Simin”) is a critically acclaimed 2011 Iranian drama film written and directed by Asghar Farhadi, starring Leila Hatami, Peyman Moaadi, Shahab Hosseini, Sareh Bayat and Sarina Farhadi. It focuses on an Iranian middle-class couple who separate, and the conflicts that arise when the husband hires a lower-class caretaker for his elderly father, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease.

A Separation won the 84th Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2012, becoming the first Iranian movie to win the award. It received the Golden Bear for Best Film and the Silver Bears for Best Actress and Best Actor at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival, becoming the first Iranian film to win the Golden Bear. It also won the 69th Golden Globe Awards for the Best Foreign Language Film. The film was nominated for the Best Original Screenplay Academy Award, a rare occurrence for a foreign language film.

Nader (Peyman Moaadi) and Simin (Leila Hatami) have been married for fourteen years and live with their eleven-year-old daughter Termeh (Sarina Farhadi) in Tehran. The family belongs to the urban upper middle-class and the couple is on the verge of separation. Simin wants to leave the country with her husband and daughter, as she does not want Termeh to grow up under the prevailing conditions. This desire is not shared by Nader. He is concerned for his elderly father (Ali-Asghar Shahbazi), who lives with the family and suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. When Nader decides to stay in Iran, Simin files for divorce.

The family court judges the couple’s problems insufficient to warrant divorce and rejects Simin’s application. Simin leaves her husband and daughter and moves back in with her parents. On the recommendation of his wife, Nader hires Razieh (Sareh Bayat), a young, deeply religious woman from a poor suburb, to take care of his father while he works at a bank. Razieh has applied for the job without consulting her hot-tempered husband Hodjat (Shahab Hosseini), whose approval, according to tradition, would have been required. Her family is financially dependent on the work, and she takes her daughter to the house with her.

Razieh soon becomes overwhelmed by taking care of Nader’s father, which is physically and emotionally demanding. On the first day of work, when she finds that the old man is incontinent, she phones a religious hotline to ask if it would be a sin for her to clean him. Assured that it would be acceptable, she continues in the job, but later hopes to get her husband into the position, without revealing that she had first worked there. She finds the work very heavy, especially as she is pregnant. Nader interviews Hodjat and hires him, but Hodjat, who is heavily in debt, is jailed by his creditors on the day he is due to start, and so Razieh returns to work for Nader.

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About Elly

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About Elly (Persian: درباره الی‎, translit. Darbareye Elly) is a 2009 Iranian film directed by Asghar Farhadi. It is the fourth film by Farhadi. The film is about the relationship among some middle class families in Iran.

Farhadi won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 59th Berlin Film Festival for the film. The film was also nominated for 10 awards at the 27th Fajr International Film Festival in Tehran where Farhadi won the Crystal Symorgh for best directing. About Elly was Iran’s official submission for the competition in Foreign Film section at the 82nd Academy Awards. It competed against films such as Bist, Tardid, Bipooli for Iran’s submission in the Academy Awards.

A group of middle-class Iranian friends travel to the shores of the Caspian Sea on a three-day vacation. They are former classmates at the Law faculty in the university. Three couples include Sepideh and her husband Amir who have a little daughter. Shohreh and her husband Peiman who have two children including their little son Arash. Nazi and her husband Manoochehr are the third family. The trip is planned by Sepideh, who brought along her daughter’s kindergarten teacher Elly in order to introduce her to Ahmad, a friend who has come back from Germany for marriage.

They all go to the villa that Sepideh has booked from Tehran, but the rural woman in charge tells them that the owners of the place are coming back tomorrow, so they can’t stay there. The old woman suggests that they stay in a deserted villa that needs a lot of repairs. There is no cellphone reception there and they have to go to the old woman’s house in order to make calls. Sepideh lies to the old woman about the relationship between Elly and Ahmad: she says they’re married and are there for their honey moon.

Elly is a little shy, but she begins to feel attracted to Ahmad, who seems to feel the same way. She calls her mother and lies to her saying that she’s with her co-workers at the sea-side. She wishes to go back to Tehran the following day, as planned. Sepideh does not want her to leave and hides her luggage. In a twist of events, Elly goes missing after one of the mothers asks her to watch the children playing in the water. The group does not know whether Elly drowned or left for Tehran on her own.

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