A Separation

Director: Asghar Farhadi

2021 / 123min / 35mm

Farhadi combines elements of the domestic drama and psychological thriller in his trenchant, lacerating 2012 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film. Simin (Leila Hatami) wants to emigrate with her 11-year-old daughter and with or without her husband, Nader (Payman Maadi), who, with the support of the court, has dug in his heels to keep the family in place while he looks after his ailing father, aided by a caregiver with costly secrets. Through the intersecting stories of two deadlocked couples—one middle-class, the other working-class—and their necessary deceptions, Farhadi shows us a microcosm of contemporary Iranian society and the insoluble moral dilemmas it presents to ordinary men and women.

Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics

Part of All Happy Families Are Alike