A Separation opens with a simple question: move away, or stay and watch a parent waste away. That question never gets resolved neatly. Asghar Farhadi’s 2011 drama follows Nader and Simin, a Tehran couple whose marriage cracks under the strain of a dying father and a daughter who wants neither of them to fail. The film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2012, becoming the first Iranian film to win the award. It also took the Golden Bear for Best Film at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival, the first Iranian film to do so.
Trailer, via Sony Pictures Classics.
The Couple Behind the Split
Nader and Simin live in a flat in Tehran with their 10-year-old daughter, Termeh. Simin wants to leave Iran with the family; Nader wants to stay to care for his father, who has Alzheimer’s disease. The family court rejects Simin’s divorce filing as insufficient grounds. She moves back to her parents’ home; Termeh stays with her father. The separation is not clean. It is messy, and the mess spills into everyone around them.
Razieh Enters the Picture
Nader hires Razieh, a deeply religious woman from a poor suburb, to care for his father during the day. She brings her young daughter, Somayeh, with her. Razieh cannot handle the old man’s incontinence. One day, he slips out and wanders the street while Razieh hurries through traffic to find him. The next day, Nader and Termeh come home early to find the old man unconscious in his bedroom, tied to the bed. Razieh and Somayeh are gone. When they return, Razieh says she had urgent personal business; Nader accuses her of neglect and stealing money Simin had used to pay movers.
What Happens Next
Nader pushes Razieh out of the flat. She falls down some steps. Razieh later suffers a miscarriage. The film leaves the cause of the miscarriage open: whether Nader knew of Razieh’s pregnancy and caused the miscarriage remains unclear. The claims pile up: Nader, with Simin and Termeh on one side; Razieh and her husband, Hojjat, on the other. Hojjat is a hot-tempered man, bitter over losing his longtime job as a cobbler.
The Judge Decides Nothing
The film does not resolve the central question of whether Nader pushed Razieh or knew she was pregnant. That is the point. Farhadi lets the tension sit, unresolved, between two families whose lives have collided.
Why It Works
The performances carry the weight. Payman Maadi plays Nader with a quiet desperation; Leila Hatami plays Simin with a sharp, wounded edge. Shahab Hosseini’s Hojjat is a man pushed to the breaking point, and Sareh Bayat’s Razieh is a woman trying to hold her family together under impossible pressure. The film’s strength is its refusal to simplify anyone’s position. Everyone acts from somewhere they believe is right.
Comparing the Awards
| Award | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | Best Foreign Language Film | Won |
| Berlin International Film Festival | Golden Bear | Won |
| Berlin International Film Festival | Silver Bear Best Actress | Won |
| Berlin International Film Festival | Silver Bear Best Actor | Won |
| Golden Globes | Best Foreign Language Film | Won |
| Asia Pacific Screen Awards | Best Feature Film | Won |
The Verdict
A Separation is a film about the small decisions that break families apart. It does not offer comfort. It offers truth, ugly and sweet, in equal measure. The film holds a 9.9/10 score on Rotten Tomatoes, and it earns it.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.
