A Separation

An Asghar Farhadi film is almost always a miracle to watch! The level of realism he portrays in his features is truly incredible. From the very first conversation with a third person judge, he gave us all the backstory and information needed, before fluently injecting in the main story conflict, characters plus deadline. This was again, an impossible feat!

A Separation was crazily real! You do not even know if the personalities we're watching are performing actors or actual people! Literally everyone here deserves best acting award! Also, whatever was occurring onscreen didn't seem scripted at all! It was as if cameras were secretly installed inside a household and we're peeking into their life ordeal at real time! This is scary!

Due to the heightened sense of realism, there's always a presence of danger lingering around the corner in every scene! With this magical method, Asghar Farhadi has captured the best tensions in bottle! You're constantly anticipating something bad to happen! Pregnant woman and old man with Alzheimer's crossing a busy road, peed pants changing, small girl playing with patient's oxygen supply tube, collapsed grandpa on the floor, courtroom hearings and chasing the conceived maid away before pushing her down the stairs were examples.

The script organically developed these characters, with each of them having specific attribute that could turn into strength or weakness depending on the situations, just like Razieh's (Sareh Bayat) religious upholding. The thing about these characters is that, there's always a balance of just and prejudice at both sides, which really what made the drama more of a tug of war rather than being simply black or white. Also, the writing knew how to conceal and reveal information when the time's ripe. Brilliant!

Not to forget, the father-daughter relationship between Nader (Peyman Moaadi) and Termeh (Sarina Farhadi) was beautiful! The clip where the former indirectly taught the latter to negotiate tips on top of being brave, confident and outspoken while looking through the rear-view mirror can touch one's heart in so many ways! The jail warden promising moment was cute too! Technicality wise, watch how creatively the director has introduced the leads through a photocopying machine and appropriately slapped in the title card after the premise gist has been pressed out.

With A Separation, Asghar Farhadi has dug into the littlest, most nuanced human psyche in the most perfect way possible. He has documented how walking on a thin line of what is right and what is otherwise involves arduous decision-making. Such was the climax and ending, where he left us to decide whom the kid chose to stay with after the parents' divorce!