Written and directed by Asghar Farhadi
Currently #100 of the Top 250 Films of All Time on IMDb (as of this posting)
Stars: Peyman Moaadi, Leila Hatami, Shahab Hosseini, Sareh Bayat, Sarina Farhadi, Ali-Asghar Shahbazi, Shirin Yazdanbakhsh, Kimia Hosseini and Merila Zarei
I heard nothing but great things about this movie. Sometimes when a movie gets overly hyped, I tend to have hesitation about the movie when I watch it. It was on top ten lists across the board. The movie won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at last year's Oscars. I enjoyed the movie, but I don't think it's a masterpiece.
Nader and Simin (Moaddi, Hatami) are the separating couple. Simin wants to move to another country to more opportunities for their daughter, Termeh (Farhadi), but Nader doesn't want that. Simin leaves the house to stay with her mother for the time being. Nader has to take care of his ailing father (Shahbazi) that has Alzheimer's. Nader needs a caregiver to help out with his father while he goes to work. He enlists the help of Razieh (Bayat) who is pregnant with her second child had to take her daughter, Somayeh (Hosseini) with her. The arrangement falls through as the tensions rise in the household that comes to a head.
Maybe this is my Westernized mind at work, but I was very confused at some moments of the film. I am not familiar with the culture of Iran or anything Muslim. I couldn't understand why the Razieh couldn't clean the father. I didn't understand the reason why Nader and Simin were separating. It seems frivolous to me. Those were my main complaints about the movie.
When the movie got going, I thought it was very poignant look at how a family dissolves when unforeseen circumstances come into their lives. I can't really say anything else about the movie. I don't want to spoil it for those that have not seen it yet.
My Rating
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