Family and duty come into conflict in Behnam Behzadi’s tale of a woman torn
Heavy, low-hanging clouds of pollution loom over Behnam Behzadi’s low-key Tehran-set drama. The dynamic Sahar Dolatshahi is Niloofar, an independent business owner and city singleton, lumped with responsibility for her ailing mother (Shirin Yazdanbakhsh). Dolatshahi is compelling as a woman torn between familial duty and self-determination, coming alive in one particular clothes-shop confrontation. One caveat: the constant shrill ring of mobile phones, a distracting narrative device that pushes the plot along while pulling the viewer out.
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Heavy, low-hanging clouds of pollution loom over Behnam Behzadi’s low-key Tehran-set drama. The dynamic Sahar Dolatshahi is Niloofar, an independent business owner and city singleton, lumped with responsibility for her ailing mother (Shirin Yazdanbakhsh). Dolatshahi is compelling as a woman torn between familial duty and self-determination, coming alive in one particular clothes-shop confrontation. One caveat: the constant shrill ring of mobile phones, a distracting narrative device that pushes the plot along while pulling the viewer out.
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- 5/21/2017
- by Simran Hans
- The Guardian - Film News
Behnam Behzadi’s absorbing film offers a subdued tale of family dynamics but ultimately shies away from the issues
Behnam Behzadi’s film is a sombre, subdued family drama set in Tehran about the insidious patriarchal forces that conspire, almost without entirely knowing it and certainly without admitting it, against independent-minded women. It is a misogynist oppression as all-pervasive as the smog that settles everywhere on the city. For another director, this might have been a more straightforwardly emotional story of a dutiful daughter, the kind of drama that could have interested Ozu or Douglas Sirk – and in many ways that is what it is here. But Inversion is more downbeat, more oblique in ways that might not have attracted those film-makers. It is an involving story, but I found it sometimes a little dessicated, and the ending rather shies away from the intractable dilemmas that had been so painful.
Behnam Behzadi’s film is a sombre, subdued family drama set in Tehran about the insidious patriarchal forces that conspire, almost without entirely knowing it and certainly without admitting it, against independent-minded women. It is a misogynist oppression as all-pervasive as the smog that settles everywhere on the city. For another director, this might have been a more straightforwardly emotional story of a dutiful daughter, the kind of drama that could have interested Ozu or Douglas Sirk – and in many ways that is what it is here. But Inversion is more downbeat, more oblique in ways that might not have attracted those film-makers. It is an involving story, but I found it sometimes a little dessicated, and the ending rather shies away from the intractable dilemmas that had been so painful.
- 5/18/2017
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Title: A Separation Directed By: Asghar Farhadi Written By: Asghar Farhadi Cast: Leila Hatami, Peyman Moadi, Shahab Hosseini, Sareh Bayat, Sarina Farhadi, Babak Karimi, Ali-Asghar Shahbazi, Shirin Yazdanbakhsh, Kimia Hosseini, Merila Zarei Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 9/27/11 Opens: December 30, 2011 This Iranian film may be as talky as anything by the French, but instead of dealing like them with romantic love and lust and the jealousies created thereby, writer-director Asghar Farhadi goes deeply into the broad questions of loyalty, justice, social class, religion, and nuances of behavior that make us root first for one citizen, then for the other, finally leaving us to make our own decisions as...
- 9/28/2011
- by Brian Corder
- ShockYa
The Los Angeles Film Festival has announced the world premiere of Richard Linklater's Bernie as the opening night film for the 2011 festival.
The film will kick off the festival on June 16 at Regal Cinemas Stadium 14 at L.A. Live. It is written by Skip Hollandsworth and director Linklater and stars Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, and Matthew McConaughey.
The film follows a beloved mortician (Black) from a small Texas town, even winning over the town's richest, meanest widow (MacLaine). Even after Bernie commits a horrible crime, people still will not utter a bad word against him.
"We're thrilled to be opening the Festival with the world premiere of this delicious black comedy - a treat from one of the most original and exciting voices in independent film, Richard Linklater," said Festival director Rebecca Yeldham. "With its fabulous all-star cast, Bernie is a perfect stage setter for the incredible line-up of...
The film will kick off the festival on June 16 at Regal Cinemas Stadium 14 at L.A. Live. It is written by Skip Hollandsworth and director Linklater and stars Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, and Matthew McConaughey.
The film follows a beloved mortician (Black) from a small Texas town, even winning over the town's richest, meanest widow (MacLaine). Even after Bernie commits a horrible crime, people still will not utter a bad word against him.
"We're thrilled to be opening the Festival with the world premiere of this delicious black comedy - a treat from one of the most original and exciting voices in independent film, Richard Linklater," said Festival director Rebecca Yeldham. "With its fabulous all-star cast, Bernie is a perfect stage setter for the incredible line-up of...
- 5/30/2011
- by alyssa@mediavine.com (Alyssa Caverley)
- Reel Movie News
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