A Separation

Director: Asghar Farhadi
Writer: Asghar farhadi
Starring: Leila Hatami, Peyman Moaddi
Release Date: January 20, 2012
Length: 2 hours 3 minutes

    Set in contemporary Iran, A Separation opens with a couple, Simin and Nader arguing in front of an unobserved court judge about their divorce. Simin wants to leave the country for her and their eleven-year-old daughter to grow up in better conditions while Nader cannot leave because of his sick father. While in the process of their messy divorce, Nader gets into an even more hectic battle with his father’s caregiver he hired, the deeply religious and poor Razieh. When his money goes missing from his room and Razieh ties the ill father up while she is out, Nader fires Razieh and demands she leaves. When Razieh persistently refuses to leave, Nader ends up pushing her out of the apartment, something she later claims caused her miscarriage.  As the case starts to involve more people like Razieh’s husband, Nader’s wife, daughter and father, the film raises and explores many questions and not just who did what, why did they do it and who was it done to?

    Writer/director/producer Asghar Farhadi opens up our Western eyes to the great existing issues in Iran, while relating to universal ones as well. There is a battle between secularity versus religion, father and child, wife and husband, wealthy and poor. As the film proceeds, the deeper questions are reached, but are far from being answered. The story stands as a deep, emotional mystery that never takes a breath of fresh air. On the thriller aspect, you are always panicked about the state of the investigation, whether Nader will be wronged, or if he even is innocent in the first place. The case continues to progress with more witnesses, and different arguments being brought up to benefit one case over another. However, as the vastly different couples continue to quarrel, we are brought back to the political and cultural differences that separate them already. With Nader in questioning, and the addition of the divorce that has yet to take place, you are poignantly drawn in to love this family. Your connection to each of them and the relationships between them, pulls at your heartstrings at the thought of them being separated.

    In essence, this film knocks you over in every single direction. You are emotionally drained, debating the pressing problems, while longing for the disruptive case to come to a close and to know who wins. Farhadi’s profound and timely script is extraordinarily brought to life by the Iranian actors you see on screen. Peyman Moaddi as Nader provides the deepest connection to his clearly distraught character. Nader clearly loves his wife and daughter very much and does not want to be separated from either of them whether it is through divorce or imprisonment, but he also loves his mentally ill father as well. Moaddi drives that emotional relationship between the audience and the film as his vulnerable distressed character carries the film.

    Leila Hatami as Simin is fantastic, showing us how much more important it is to her to have the divorce so she can have a better life and give a better life to her daughter. The level of magnitude of the women’s issue is effectively brought out through Hatami’s character and Hatami’s performance. Filmmaker Asghar Farhadi’s daughter, Sarina Farhadi is heart wrenching as Termeh and serves as the unofficial narrator to the film, as we see the story from her peacekeeping and perplexed point of view. Farhadi’s gripping and simply breathtaking A Separation is not only the best foreign film of the year, but one of the best films of the year, period. 

Monsieur Lahzar

Director: Phillipe Faladreau
Writer: Phillipe Faladreau
Starring: Mohammed Fellag, Émilien Néron, Sophie Nélisse
Release Date: TBA
Length: 1 hour 34 minutes

    The producers of last year’s overwhelmingly powerful film that should have won best foreign picture at the Academy Awards, Incendies, return to the Toronto International Film Festival with an equally moving French Canadian film, Monsieur Lahzar.

    The film, based off a one-man play, tells the story of an Algerian immigrant teacher who takes a job at an elementary school in Montreal for a class of distressed students. Their former beloved teacher hung herself in their classroom, for the particular student Simon to unfortunately witness when he was picking up milk. As the young kids get over the trauma in different ways, their new teacher Bachir Lazhar works on fitting in with his new students and his new North American lifestyle. The traumatized Simon faces resentment from his best friend Alice, as she has her own ideas of why the death took place. Meanwhile, the kind hearted Bachir faces problems with his immigration, as we learn he has a troublesome tale of why he came to Canada. His different teaching methods may be just what these kids need, as they cope with the sudden event that has forever altered the school.

    There is beautiful delicacy to this film that writer/director Phillipe Faladreau establishes right from the start. The normality and dullness of the suburban Montreal winter setting only make the powerful story and characters of the film more vivid. Faladreau continues to shine with his layered screenwriting that moves you in an oddly haunting way. He makes you so incredibly attached to these complex characters with ever so subtle depictions of them. These people appear simple to you at first while subliminally instilling themselves in your heart, so that by the end of the film, your compassion for them will have you in tears.

    This poignant script is performed by the most exceptional actors of all ages. The two main children the story focuses on are played by the powerful young actors Émilien Néron and Sophie Nélisse. Nélisse is simply captivating as Alice, a very quiet but complicated little girl who separates herself from her best friend. Néron evokes so much empathy from the audience with his heartbreaking performance of a boy who is conflicted on whether he caused his teacher’s suicide. There is a particular scene in the classroom that will create the most tears in the film because of his exceptional acting. The two together create a lovely emotional relationship for the audience to watch that drives much of your affection in the film.

    Algerian actor Mohammed Fellag, better known as Fellag is the perfect representation of subtle gravity that this film carries. His shy kind demeanour makes him easily lovable and pulls at your heart-strings during his immigration scenes. His quiet love for the children he teaches prepares your heart for breaking and his very timid attitude, when on a date, just makes you giggle with excitement. There are also wonderful performances from Danielle Proulx and Brigitte Poupart as other staff members at the school.

   Rightfully the official submission from Canada to the Best Foreign Film Award at the Oscars, Monsieur Lazhar is one of the most touching films of the year and deserves to be nominated this coming January. With the outstanding cast and the talented skills of Phillipe Faladreau, it is simply a must see for anyone with a heart.