Prize-winning Iranian film in Corrie

A Separation, made only last year, will be shown at the Corrie Film Club on Sunday 10th June, starting at 8.00 pm. Directed and written by Asghar Farhadi, the film gives a subtle and perceptive insight into the relationship of a troubled middle-class Iranian couple. It won the 84th Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2012 and scooped a startling number of awards at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Simin wants to separate from her husband, Nader, for reasons concerning the status of women in Iran. Nader, trying to cope alone with his elderly father, who has Alzheimer’s, hires a young woman to help with the task. Her name is Razieh. She comes from a poor suburb and is deeply religious. Her family needs the money she earns, but she has not asked the permission of her hot-tempered husband to take the post. Nader’s father is physically and emotionally demanding, and she finds the work very heavy, especially as she is pregnant. One day while she is cleaning, the old man wanders out of the apartment, and she is horrified to see him at a news-stand across a busy road. For his own safety, she tries to restrain him to the flat, but when Nader finds his father with an arm tied to the bed, he is outraged. He throws Razieh out of the flat, and she falls and suffers a miscarriage.

Nader and Simin have not been able to conclude their divorce, and Nader is blamed for causing Razieh’s miscarriage – an offence that counts in Iran as murder. They end up in court, and at last a separation is worked out, but throughout the struggles and conflicts, the story has focused on the couple’s 11-year-old daughter, Termeh, painfully caught in the dispute. She, whatever the decision, will be the loser. Beautifully acted, the film puts a revealing finger on an Iranian conflict of universal significance.

for more information on Corrie Film club see here & check dates on the Corrie Hall Diary Here