Tonight A Separation from Iran, directed by Asghar Farhadi received the first ever OSCAR for an Iranian film. A Separation won the OSCAR for The Best Foreign Language Film Award.
When in December 2011 Cinema Without Borders Interviewed Asghar Farhadi and he was asked about the chances of A Separation to be nominated or to win the OSCAR, he said: “To tell you the truth, I’m not very familiar with the process at the Golden Globe and Oscars. But two factors count in a competition besides the quality of the film, one is the other contenders—and evidently many good foreign films from different countries have been selected this year. Secondly, publicity, which is very critical in the Oscars because the Academy numbers nearly 6000 members, meaning that a film has to be publicized so widely and so well that these six thousand people get to see it so they can vote. I don’t know what will happen and how much money will be spent on publicity. Anyway, I hope that it will be on the right track because if something good happens, it will make everyone in Iran very happy. But I try not to think about this because I can’t predict the outcome.”
Since then A Separation has won Best Foreign Labguage Film Award at the Golden Globe Awards and the Best Foreign Film Award at the Cesar Awards.
Other nominees for the Best Foreign language Film Award were Bullhead (Belgium), Footnote (Israel), In Darkness (Poland), and Monsieur Lazhar (Canada).
Cinema Without Borders’ visitors, voted for A Separation to win the OSCAR.
A Separation (Jodaeiye Nader az Simin) Iran, directed by Asghar Farhadi, (Also Asghar Farhadi was nominated for the Best Original Screenplay for A Separation): When bank employee Nader refuses to emigrate, his wife Simin sues for divorce, citing better opportunities for their daughter outside the country. After Simin decamps from the family apartment, Nader hires Razieh, a devout young woman with a four-year-old daughter to mind his Alzheimer-afflicted father. It soon becomes clear that the chador-clad Razieh is pregnant and looking after the wandering, incontinent, elderly man will tax her energy as well as her religious principles. Moreover, Razieh’s debt-ridden, out-of-work husband doesn’t know that she has taken the job, and would never allow her to enter the home of a strange man. Ultimately, fallout from an ugly argument pits Nader and Razieh against one another in the Iranian legal system, forcing all involved to consider the nature of loyalty, truth and integrity. Tense and dramatically complex, formally dense and morally challenging, this is writer/director Asghar Farhadi’s strongest work yet. The provocative plot casts a revealing light on contemporary Iranian society as it takes on issues of gender, class, justice and honor.
Director: Asghar Farhadi
Producer: Asghar Farhadi
Editor: Hayedeh Safiyari
Screenwriter: Asghar Farhadi
Cinematographer: Mahmood Kalari
Music: Sattar Oraki
Principal Cast: Leila Hatami, Peyman Moadi, Shahab Hosseini, Sareh Bayat.