Nader and Simin: A Separation (2012)
Suppression of expression, oppression, restriction and poverty are said to be strong motivators for artistic expressions. If that is true, then looking at the number of good films and great directors being churned out of Iran since the days of the Shah, you would be forgiven if you thought that living condition in that country was appalling and has not changed.
This movie, a winner of the Foreign Film category of the Academy, starts with a couple (Nader and Simin) at divorce court applying for a divorce. Simin (the wife) wants to leave the country for better life for her and their 11 year old daughter whilst Nader (husband) refuses to barge as he has to care for his father with Alzheimer's Disease. Nader also refuses to allow his daughter to migrate. Simin leaves her husband to stay with her family.
After finding high and low for domestic help to care for the father, Nader finally hires Houjat, a financially challenged lady with a short tempered and debt stricken husband to help out. Her first day of work proved too challenging for Houjat. She discovers that the Nader's father is also incontinent and she had to clean him up. It poses a challenge and she actually calls the religious hotline to clarify whether it was a sin to clean him up!
She suggests Nader to hire her cobbler husband instead. Unfortunately, the husband is arrested he following day and Houjat had to return to work the next day.
Suppression of expression, oppression, restriction and poverty are said to be strong motivators for artistic expressions. If that is true, then looking at the number of good films and great directors being churned out of Iran since the days of the Shah, you would be forgiven if you thought that living condition in that country was appalling and has not changed.
This movie, a winner of the Foreign Film category of the Academy, starts with a couple (Nader and Simin) at divorce court applying for a divorce. Simin (the wife) wants to leave the country for better life for her and their 11 year old daughter whilst Nader (husband) refuses to barge as he has to care for his father with Alzheimer's Disease. Nader also refuses to allow his daughter to migrate. Simin leaves her husband to stay with her family.
After finding high and low for domestic help to care for the father, Nader finally hires Houjat, a financially challenged lady with a short tempered and debt stricken husband to help out. Her first day of work proved too challenging for Houjat. She discovers that the Nader's father is also incontinent and she had to clean him up. It poses a challenge and she actually calls the religious hotline to clarify whether it was a sin to clean him up!
She suggests Nader to hire her cobbler husband instead. Unfortunately, the husband is arrested he following day and Houjat had to return to work the next day.
Houjat brings her young daughter to work as well. While cleaning her up, she discovers that the old man had left the flat. She manages to locate him in the streets and bring him home.
On the following day, Nader and his daughter come home to a locked flat with his father restrained to the bed but had fallen off the bed. Houjat returns much later to an angry Nader who accuses her of neglect and stealing some petty cash (was actually taken by his wife earlier to pay some movers) and pushes her out of the flat.
The next thing Nader hears is that Houjat is in hospital fighting for her life after having a miscarriage. Nader is looking at 1 to 3 years of imprisonment for indirectly causing a death of a 19week old foetus. A court hearing (a very informal one) is arranged. This is where the real story of the movie and issues crop up. Nader claims that he did not know that Houjat was pregnant whilst his daughter knows that he knew before hand. There is unresolved issues between daughter and father on morality, telling the truth, how law interprets the 'truth', the reality of the uncared ailing father, etcetera. Simin returns home to help out the husband's problem.
After much anger and drama, Simin arranges for monetary compensation for Houjat and family. Nader, initially reluctant on the fear of admission of guilt, relents but with the condition that Houjat swears on the Quran that his pushing from the flat actually caused the miscarriage! Houjat crumbles. She refuses, even at the insistence of her husband to just swear and take the money, fearing curse befell on her daughter. Apparently, the day before the incident, while trying to locate Nader's father on the road and pulling him off the busy street, she was hit by a car. She felt pain that night and was the reason for her disappearance on the day in question - to consult a doctor!
The charges were all withdrawn.
The charges were all withdrawn.
In the next scene, Nader, Simin and their daughter are back in the divorce court. The daughter is asked to choose to stay with either of the parent. She requests to state her preference without her parents in the room. Nader and Simin wait outside the room while the closing credits roll in...... The end.
A gripping film without the usual unnecessary exposure of aurat. Also missing are the overacting and melodramatic overhype of most Indian movies are guilty of. The plus point of the movie is simple story and the intricate complexities tied to it. In life, there is no clear demarcation of who is good and who is bad. People do what they do based what is available to them and the turmoils that revolve around their daily lives.
Maybe my wife would not like it - no good looking guys, no flashy clothes, no flesh to show, no set dance, no dancing music....
Maybe my wife would not like it - no good looking guys, no flashy clothes, no flesh to show, no set dance, no dancing music....
99% fresh rating on 'Rotten Tomatoes'
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