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IMDbPro

A Separation

Original title: Jodaeiye Nader az Simin
  • 20112011
  • PG-13PG-13
  • 2h 3m
IMDb RATING
8.3/10
247K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
2,865
11
Leila Hatami and Payman Maadi in A Separation (2011)
A couple has to make a decision to leave Iran to better the life of their child or to stay and take care of a parent suffering from Alzheimers; however, the couple's marriage may end in divorce.
Play trailer2:04
2 Videos
78 Photos
Drama
A married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzhei... Read allA married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.A married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.
IMDb RATING
8.3/10
247K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
2,865
11
    • Asghar Farhadi
    • Asghar Farhadi
  • Stars
    • Payman Maadi
    • Leila Hatami
    • Sareh Bayat
    • Asghar Farhadi
    • Asghar Farhadi
  • Stars
    • Payman Maadi
    • Leila Hatami
    • Sareh Bayat
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 424User reviews
    • 378Critic reviews
    • 95Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Top rated movie #114
    • Won 1 Oscar

    Videos2

    U.S. Version
    Trailer 2:04
    Watch U.S. Version
    International Trailer
    Trailer 1:56
    Watch International Trailer

    Photos78

    Leila Hatami and Payman Maadi in A Separation (2011)
    Payman Maadi and Sarina Farhadi in A Separation (2011)
    Shahab Hosseini in A Separation (2011)
    Leila Hatami in A Separation (2011)
    Kimia Hosseini and Sareh Bayat in A Separation (2011)
    Payman Maadi and Ali-Asghar Shahbazi in A Separation (2011)
    Kimia Hosseini in A Separation (2011)
    Leila Hatami and Payman Maadi in A Separation (2011)
    Leila Hatami and Payman Maadi in A Separation (2011)
    Payman Maadi and Sareh Bayat in A Separation (2011)
    Leila Hatami in A Separation (2011)
    Leila Hatami and Payman Maadi in A Separation (2011)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Payman Maadi
    Payman Maadi
    • Nader
    • (as Peyman Moadi)
    Leila Hatami
    Leila Hatami
    • Simin
    Sareh Bayat
    Sareh Bayat
    • Razieh
    Shahab Hosseini
    Shahab Hosseini
    • Hojjat
    Sarina Farhadi
    Sarina Farhadi
    • Termeh
    Merila Zare'i
    Merila Zare'i
    • Miss Ghahraii
    Ali-Asghar Shahbazi
    Ali-Asghar Shahbazi
    • Nader's Father
    Babak Karimi
    Babak Karimi
    • Interrogator
    Kimia Hosseini
    Kimia Hosseini
    • Somayeh
    Shirin Yazdanbakhsh
    Shirin Yazdanbakhsh
    • Simin's Mother
    Sohibanoo Zolqadr
    • Azam
    • (as Sahabanu Zolghadr)
    Mohammadhasan Asghari
    • Creditor
    Shirin Azimiyannezhad
    • Woman in the Bus
    Hamid Dadju
    • Creditor
    Mohammad Ebrahimian
    • Judge
    Samad Farhang
    • Interrogator's Office Manager
    Ali Fattahi
    • Soldier
    Nafise Ghodrati
    • School Teacher
      • Asghar Farhadi
      • Asghar Farhadi
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Director Asghar Farhadi's first idea for the movie was the image of a man washing his father, who had Alzheimer's. He built the rest of the film around that scene.
    • Goofs
      Although Razieh had gone to the doctor to see if her baby was still alive a few hours before she was beaten by Nader, the judge never asked her about the result of the medical check. Also, after medical examination, it should be clear for Razieh to know about the situation of her baby unless she couldn't reach the doctor at the time.
    • Quotes

      Simin: Does he even realize you are his son?

      Nader: I know he is my father!

    • Connections
      Featured in Ebert Presents: At the Movies: Episode #2.12 (2011)

    User reviews424

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    10/10
    The Swan Song of Iranian cinema?
    Asghar Farhadi's new film after the ingenious 'About Elly' is running for the Golden Bear at this year's Berlin Film Festival and, with half of the competition done and the rest of the program not looking too promising, appears to be an almost inevitable winner. Although maybe it won't for that very reason: Jahar Panahi's repeat inability to attend his jury duties because of Iran's government refusal to issue him a travel permit, a retrospective of his works including the 2006 Silver Bear-winning 'Offside', a variety of other Iranian productions and renewed demonstrations in Iran proper put the spotlight firmly on that country's elaborate, yet constrained film industry. All that buzz may outshine the film's artistic value, and prompt the jury to go for a less favored competitor. I should hope not, for Farhadi manages once again to embed lots of social criticism into a straight-laced, realistic narrative.

    As in 'About Elly', the story begins rather unassumingly and takes an abrupt turn into a spiral of increasingly dramatic events: Nader and Simin are a couple about to break up over the question of moving abroad, for which they have obtained a permit after waiting for 18 months. Nader, however, has his father to take care of, who is suffering from Alzheimer's. Sirin still wants to leave, but not without her daughter (yes, pun intended) Termeh, a somewhat shy, bespectacled 11-year-old who cannot accept her parents' break-up. She therefore decides to stay with her father, which prompts Simin not to leave the country, but move to her mother. Nader is thereby forced to hire someone to take care of his dad, and a colleague of Sirin recommends the pregnant Razieh. Being deeply religious, she should not work in a single man's household, but her husband has been out of a job for a long time and is threatened with jail by his creditors. Her pregnancy and the necessity to attend to her daughter additionally stress her out. When Nader comes home one day to find his father left alone and tied to his bed, a struggle with the returning Razieh ensues, with catastrophic consequences for everyone around...

    This is a much more complicated set-up than in 'About Elly', but it allows Farhadi to put a lot of additional information into his film as may be obvious to those who are just trying to follow the story (I hesitate to give examples because the film is as of yet to be released in Iran, which means an open-source comment such as this one needs to be carefully phrased). Much of the action takes place in courtrooms, where judges try to negotiate between the parties without any lawyers present. There's a lot of familiarity, and also a lot of menace, which succeeds to create the same climate of anxiety, accusation and deceit as in 'About Elly'. The realism of the narrative is embedded into a carefully planned scenography which makes almost every shot linger in the memory. And as in 'About Elly' the decisive moment, the one that solves the mystery is omitted in the picture, only to be explained verbally at the very end.

    What makes me feel even more for this film is the fact that it might be the last film of its kind from Iran for some time. Ali Samadi Ahadi, the German-Iranian director of the comedy 'Salami Aleikum' and the upcoming documentary on the July 2009 protests 'The Green Wave', wrote that the film industry has come to a virtual standstill. 'Nader and Simin' was in development at the time of the protests; since then, regulations have become far more repressive, with even established masters like Kiarostami or Makhmalbaf forced to work abroad, and others threatened with jail and work prohibitions, of whom Panahi is only the most famous example. All the more reason to give this film the credit it deserves - winning Berlin may cause Iran's bureaucrats to reconsider, for cinema is almost the last link remaining to our world. Without film, how could we understand that Iranians are a modern people with issues like our own, and not dangerous fanatics as some media and politicians would have us believe?
    helpful•382
    79
    • Radu_A
    • Feb 16, 2011

    FAQ7

    • Do they have lawyers in Iran?
    • Is 'A Separation' based on a book?
    • Who took the money?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • March 16, 2011 (Iran)
      • Iran
      • France
      • Australia
    • Official sites
      • Golem Distribución (Spain)
      • Memento Films (France)
      • Persian
    • Also known as
      • Tehran, Iran
    • Production companies
      • Asghar Farhadi Productions
      • Dreamlab Films
      • MPA APSA Academy Film Fund
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • 2 hours 3 minutes
      • Color
      • Dolby Digital

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