Blu-ray Review: A Separation – One of the year’s best releases.

Every now and then a film comes along which wraps you up so successfully in its atmosphere €“ one in which you would not normally find yourself exposed - that returning to the normal €˜everyday€™ world you inhibit takes some re-adjusting.

Films like Martin Scorsese€™sTaxi Driver, which suffocates you in the grim reality of 70s New York and the even grimmer psychosis of Travis Bickle; or Yasujiro Ozu€™s Tokyo Story €“ a film which slowly draws you into the stifling societal structures of a Japanese culture and era which seems alien to modern audiences; or, more recently, We Need To Talk About Kevin - in which the creeping horror and unrelieved tension makes you more than glad to return to normality. Asqhar Farhadi€™s A Separation is another one to add to the list.

We begin with a couple, Simir (Leila Hatami) and Nader (Peyman Moaadi), asking a judge for a divorce. They look straight into the camera as they plead their case. From this opening scene, it is clear that this film will contain no easy answers. With the film taking place in Iran, Simir has to prove to the judge that she has grounds to ask for the divorce from her husband. She tells the judge he is a loving husband, a good father and a kind and generous man. However, Simir wishes to leave Tehran, believing it better to raise their daughter Termeh (Sarina Farhadi) elsewhere. Nader refuses to leave, as he must look after his father who has Alzheimer€™s and lives with the family, and instead would rather grant a divorce.

The judge refuses their request and Simir subsequently moves out of their home to live with her parents. It is from this development that our drama unfolds, as Nader must hire someone to help look after his father while he is at work. Razieh (Sareh Bayat) is recommended by a friend of the family and comes to work for Nader, despite the fact she is pregnant. She works for him without informing her husband for fear of the recriminations involved in working in the home of a married, yet single, man. What follows is best left unexplained for fear of ruining the drama.

The films of John Cassavetes immediately spring to mind when thinking about A Separation. Like Cassavetes at his best, Farhadi allows his actors the freedom to find the drama in the scene by letting his camera roam. He understands human emotions, and while the film€™s narrative becomes increasingly fraught with incidents that in the hands of lesser filmmakers may have become cloyingly melodramatic, Farhadi never allows sentiment to interfere with characters having to make difficult decisions. Decisions which they quite frequently make for the wrong reasons, and with disastrous results.

While the film is primarily about the separation of Simir and Nader, and the consequences this has for their family and those around them, there is also plenty of cultural commentary to support the narrative. A Separation certainly doesn€™t offer implicit criticism of governance in Iran, in the way in which other filmmakers have found themselves jailed for. It does, however, offer us an insight into a society undergoing transformation. There are subtle riffs to be found amidst the drama on class, religion and gender and the role that all three have to play on determining the lives of our protagonists.

Director and writer Asqhar Farhadi seems to have created the film by feeling around for a loose thread amongst these characters and their situation at which to pull. And once he begins to pull, the narrative quickly unravels and the lives of those involved disintegrates with it. He has created an intelligent and humane film, and one which must rank as one of the year€™s best.

Extras:

The extras on Artificial Eye€™s Blu-ray release consist of three interviews, plus the film€™s trailer. Director Asqhar Farhadi features on two of the interviews, while Leila Hatami contributes to the third. Farhadi is eloquent and engaging about, firstly, his own route to making the film and finally the film itself. His background in theatre, he explains, helped him source the dramatic realism required for such a delicate film and understand how to work with his actors on making the film so powerful.

That is also the primary topic of conversation for Leila Hatami, who is full of praise for Farhadi€™s working methods and his innate ability to rein in performances. Hatami admits that actors love nothing more than throw on the histrionics. However, Farhadi€™s insistence that his camera would find the drama in their quiet performances and even in their subtle looks, gestures and thoughts, convinced Hatami and Peyman Moaadi to act within themselves, and the film is all the better for it.

It might have been interesting to have had a €˜making of€™, or even a peak at some of the rehearsal footage, but you can understand when filmmakers choose not to include such things, when they may spoil the natural feel of the film.

Film

One of the year's most moving and mature films €“ 5

Visuals

The high definition release does justice to the shooting format and style of the film, with the drama all the more terrifying in great clarity and detail €“ 5

Audio

Sound quality is excellent as we follow the characters around the busy streets of Tehran €“ 4

Extras

May have been more in-depth, but the interviews were interesting and informative €“ 3

Presentation

Artificial Eye usually deliver in their presentation of World Cinema, and this release is no different €“ 4

Overall

A smattering more in the extras department would have seen this film given top marks €“ 4.5