This post is long
overdue. It’s about time I report to you on A Separation (جدایی نادر از سیمین), a movie I watched while visiting a friend in Dallas last weekend.
In general, if I report
on something, it means it won my approval one way or another. So how did A
Separation win my approval? Let me count the ways:
It won my approval for
its depth and breadth and height
No. Seriously. Enough of
the Brownings. Here’s why I recommend this movie:
The cinematography was
interesting. The handheld camera technique might cause the audience some
discomfort. It certainly did that to my movie partner. However, though this
technique is often used haphazardly by movie makers to assert their familiarity
with the revival of this school of cinematography in the same way that stream
of consciousness is often used haphazardly by modern novelists, this time the
technique matched the content, in a rather Wordsworthian content/context
symmetry, just not a very Romantic one*.
The story involves, as
the title suggests, the separation of Simin and Nader. But notice the
indefinite article A in the English translation. It is not without
significance. This is not a definite story. The/A separation here is not simply
that of Simin and Nader, but that between right and wrong, and the undesirability
and complexity of choosing between them. A complexity that is spoon-fed to the
audience in the last scene of the movie (But I won’t spoil that for you). This
is not a movie about what happens when Simin and Nader separate. This is a
movie about what happens when right and good and true are at conflict. An old
dilemma when it comes to literature. Should Cathy have stayed a tormented life
with Heathcliff as opposed to her decision to try a better life for both of
them? Should Jane have accepted Rochester’s marriage proposal that came only
after he lost land and sight? Should Frankenstein have created a female
monster/partner? Should Dexter’s sister play cop or sister upon discovering her
psychopath brother with blood on his hands?
Should the last scene of The Sopranos end the series with the Sopranos
apparently living happily ever after? Why does art insist on burdening us with
these philosophical questions? Can’t we just be entertained freely?
But I digress and
babble.
So the burdening
question here is thus:
Having been abandoned
by his wife for his refusal to leave Iran and provide his daughter with what
would presumably be a better life elsewhere, Nader had to hire Razieh to care
for his Alzheimer-inflicted father. The hired help happens to be pregnant.
Nadir’s knowledge of that pregnancy was a question soon answered. In a moment
of anger probably or probably not justifies, Nader pushes the pregnant woman
out of his house, consciously or not so consciously aware of her pregnancy,
possibly causing her to tumble down a few stairs. Razieh later sues Nader for
the loss of her unborn child. Nadir’s knowledge of her pregnancy is pivotal to
the verdict he will receive from judge. As the events unfold, we learn that he
might have known about the pregnancy, but with that comes the knowledge that
the miscarriage might have been caused by an earlier incident. Doubt. (Shakk).
A term Razieh uses quite frequently to refer to her own doubt and therefore
possible guilt at framing a man for a miscarriage he was not directly responsible.
But this shakk is what the audience is left with as well, epitomized in
the brilliant acting of Termeh, Simin and Nadir’s 11 year old daughter, as she
struggles to decide whether her father is guilty or not.
Now enough about the
content. Let’s go back to the harmony of form and content. In movies we want a
good camera, good plot, and good acting. Having vouched for the first two (Read
above in case you missed that), let me move to the brilliant acting. The 11
year old referred to in the last paragraph is one example. But other examples
are aplenty. The father playing the part of a man with Alzheimer did such a
pretty good job that we are left actually considering whether this is indeed an
act. Simin is a brilliant actress. And even the young daughter of the hired
help masters her role as we see those inquiring eyes looking through doors in
an attempt to decipher what is happening in the adult world she lives in.
Good camera. Good
acting. Good plot. Dear audience, the verdict is in. Without a shakk
this is a great movie.
*Or if you wish, a
more philosophical Hegelian concept of the reciprocal revulsion of form and
content.
p.s. Simin (Leila Hatami) is a pretty good looking redhead here.
