In A Seperation, each of the characters tries to live their lives within the boundaries of state and religion. It's a Persian film and we learn a lot about a system where the state represents religion. Eventually, all involved parties end up in court, which tries to settle human feelings through a catalogue of rules. We, the viewers, are involved in these negotiations as directly as I have ever experienced in hardly any film! We understand the logic of each position and even our own feelings contradict each other. Let us try to imagine a life in Iran, a modern society that has imposed the laws of the Koran on itself. A Seperation, by the way, has no problems with Islam; the film shows how theory and practice of law are incompatible. A problem in all states of the world. The law tries to judge hypothetically and there is a danger that the law will be replaced by principles. And this is how the basic constellation works: Nader and Simin (Peyman Moadi and Leila Hatami) are a happily married couple from Tehran with a sweet eleven-year-old daughter named Termeh (Sarina Farhadi). Nader's sinile father also lives with them. To give their daughter a better life, Nader and Simin want to emigrate. Nader only wants to stay for a while to care for the father. A conflict: His father would no longer know him, Simin says. But Nader contradicts that he would know his father very well. For the father, Nader has hired a nurse, Razieh (Sareh Bayat). She works in secret because her husband, Hodjat (Shahab Hosseini), would never allow her to work in a household where she is alone with a man. A strict Muslim obviously. One day Nader returns home and finds his father tied to the bed. Razieh did this for a good reason, but at that moment neither Nader nor we know that. Nader fires Razieh and she accuses him of pushing her down the stairs. In the process, she has suffered a miscarriage. Nader is accused of manslaughter. I think that's all you need to know about the initial situation. The judge, by the way, is fair in this trial, and the jury will try to be as objective as possible. But nobody in the courtroom knows all the facts and the verdict must be in accordance with the Koran. Nader and Simin are of moderate faith, Razieh at least considers whether she should be allowed to change a man's underwear, even though he is old and ill. The driving force behind her is her family. I think we're dealing here less with a courtroom film that aims to find the truth. A Seperation rather tries to understand all sides and to build empathy. It focuses on lovers whose actions distance her. In the end it is difficult for us to condemn anyone at all. I had the biggest problems sharing Nader's position. Yes, I understand him. No, I think he is acting wrong because he still operates in the categories right vs. wrong - but at the expense of his family. I think in the days of Pergida and Trump, when the most stupid people assume that Iran is a nation full of crazy "camel drivers", A Seperation is a sensible medicine. We get the portrait of a society in all its nuances. The people in the film act moderately with the will to do the right thing. To decide right and wrong, this turns into a moral finding about the nature of judgment itself.
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