Copyright 2011 Hopskotch Films
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
I finally got around to seeing this film recently and, if you haven’t seen this one yet, stop what you are doing right now, go to the local redbox, and rent this tonight. Seriously, it’s the best film of last year, and I don’t mind saying that in the first sentence of my review, which says a lot.
Written and directed by Asghar Farhadi, this now Academy Award-winning film, stars well-known Irania actress Leila Hatami and Peyman Moadi as couple Simin and Nader. Together, they have a adolescent daughter, Termeh (Sarina Farhadi). They reside in Nader’s father’s apartment, who is essentially an invalid due to the effects of Alzheimer’s disease. When Nader refuses to leave their native country and his father, Simin demands a separation, to which he readily agrees. With Simin leaving the household, Nader hires a sitter for his father, Razieh (Sareh Bayat). However, after having to clean up an accident his father has on her first day, she tells Nader she can no longer do the job; the drive is too far, and she has religious concerns over touching his father to clean him up if he soils himself. She, however, recommends her husband, Hodjat (Shahab Hosseini), who is out of work and deeply indebted to creditors. The following day, when Hdjat can’t make it to the house due to a court appearance, Razieh, who is pregnant, returns with her young daughter to do the work. However, she leaves his father unattended during the day for personal reasons. When Nader comes home to find his father tied to a bed and nearly at a point of death, he blows up at Razieh when she returns. The scuffle includes a slight physical interaction on his part; she, subsequently, miscarries her child. It’s left to the court and the families to decide whether Nader is responsible.
This film, made on a minuscule budget compared to even independent American films, is a powerhouse dramatic effort. The acting, directing, editing, cinematography, and most of all, wonderfully dramatic story, come together to create an engaging, passionate and engrossing film that will go down in history as a classic. It’s once in a blue moon that you get to view a film that is as truly cinematic as this, and its always a special occasion that will be savored in an your mind long after it’s running time is over.
It’s films like this that renew my hope in cinema whenever the general Hollywood “fodder” has be down about the industry. I can only hope that I can be a part of a film as special as this one day.
notesonafilm 