A Separation is a 2011 film from Iran directed by Asghar Farhadi.
A married couple, Simin and Nader, are divorcing, due to irreconcilable goals: Simin wants to leave Iran in order to give her daughter Termeh a chance to grow up in a less restrictive culture, whilst Nader believes his primary obligation is to care for his father, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease. Simin's departure from the house has forced her husband to get a caretaker to look after his father while he's at work. Nader hires Razieh, a fundamentalist Muslim woman who, as it happens, is four months pregnant.
One day Nader comes home from work to find his father fallen on the floor, with his hand tied to the bed. When Razieh returns from her unexplained absence a livid Nader fires her. Nader gets even angrier when he finds that a bundle of cash kept in the apartment is missing. Razieh indignantly denies being a thief. Their confrontation blows up into a tragedy that is the trigger for a further series of disasters.
The film won the 2011 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, making it both Iran's and director Asghar Farhadi's first win (the second is The Salesman).
Examples of tropes included:
- Bittersweet Ending: Nader is not punished for Razieh's miscarriage, which was most likely not his fault, but he and Simin are still separating. Their mourning clothes as they wait for Termeh to make her decision also indicate that Nader's father has died.
- Book Ends: The film opens and ends with Nader and Simin filing for divorce in a family court. At the beginning of the film, their request is rejected; at the end, it is accepted.
- Buy Them Off: Simin sees this as the ideal solution. In fact, Hodjat and Razieh are okay with this - but Nader sees paying the money as an admission of guilt and refuses.
- Daddy's Girl: Termeh, who seems to get on better with Nader than with Simin. However, Simin suspects that Termeh is just trying to keep them together.
- Darkest Hour: The film hits this when Termeh is forced to lie for her father's sake. Then she is dubbed a "killer's daughter" by Hodjat in her school. Then Mrs. Ghahraei unceremoniously bows out of the conflict and refuses to meet with Nader again. Eventually Simin forcibly takes Termeh to her mother's house, leaving Nader alone and still sued for the miscarriage.
- Death Glare: Somayeh does this to Termeh at the end, after the truth about the miscarriage is revealed.
- Divorce Assets Conflict: Averted - Simin does not want to retain any material possessions with the exception of a couple of books.
- Feuding Families: Nader and Simin vs. Hodjat and Razieh, as a result of unfortunate conflict about the old man.
- Fiery Redhead: Simin, who has vivid red hair and will take no guff from her husband.
- Follow in My Footsteps: Simin and Termeh.
- Foot-Dragging Divorcee: Nader doesn't want the divorce. As events prove, Simin doesn't really want the divorce either, she just wants Nader to emigrate with her.
- Foreshadowing:
- Near the beginning of the film, Nader tells Termeh that her teacher made a mistake with her homework, and says that it's better to be marked wrong than to be wrong. Later, his refusal to admit that he had anything to do with Razieh's miscarriage prevents the story from being resolved quickly and in the end means that the families will never come to any agreement. But hey, he never confessed any guilt, right?
- The scene where Razieh is escorting Nader's father from the street. The film then cuts to Nader, Termeh, and Somayeh playing a foosball game, while Razieh is painfully clutching her stomach. She even faints when she is taking the bus home. It is later revealed that she was hit by a car after taking Nader's father to safety, and the event is probably the true cause for her miscarriage.
- For Want Of A Nail: Had Simin not tried to emigrate, her relationship with Nader wouldn't have broken down. Had their relationship not broken down, she wouldn't have left the apartment, thus forcing Nader to look for a caretaker for his father. Had he not tried to hire a caretaker, he wouldn't have been involved with Razieh, whose family holds a very traditionalist view of the world and who will sue him if there is a prick of an evidence that he causes problems to her, which he may or may not have done. Had he admitted that he may have a part, there wouldn't be any suing and blaming and all the mess impacting Termeh, her teacher, and others...
- From Bad to Worse: The film can be summed up as a simple divorce case that snowballs into a community-shattering trouble because they just so happen to hit the wrong notes all over the place.
- The Fundamentalist: Hodjat and Razieh.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality: All over the place. All of the characters wind themselves deeper and deeper into moral dilemmas where they struggle between their faith, their family obligations, the law, and the truth.
- Harmful to Minors: Termeh and Somayeh, but especially Termeh, considering that she is young enough to still be considered a child but old enough to process what's going on.
- Higher Education Is for Women: Simin, who despite her mounting familial problems and possible emigration does not let them hinder her taking classes.
- Missing Mom: Simin for Termeh, for quite some time.
- My Secret Pregnancy: Razieh. Some (but not all) of the conflicts could have been stopped had she openly revealed that she has a pregnancy.
- Never My Fault: Nader refuses to admit that he could have caused Razieh's miscarriage, and in fact won't accept responsibility for anything that happens in the film. He eventually gives in near the end, but by then information has leaked that may prove of his innocence.
- No Ending: The film does not reveal whether Termeh will emigrate alongside her mother or stay with her father.
- No Woman's Land: Downplayed. Hodjat has some very backwards views, as does Razieh, and Simin wants to raise Termeh outside of Iran. However, women are not portrayed as downtrodden or without rights in any way.
- Papa Wolf: Hodjat. So much that he not only tries to sue Nader for his baby's miscarriage, he calls Termeh a killer's daughter in front of her entire schoolmates just to force Nader to admit to causing the miscariage.
- The Plot Reaper: Downplayed. Nader's father dies in the epilogue, freeing Nader from any responsibility of staying in Iran to care for him...except that by this time, his and Simin's marriage have long been dissolved.
- Punch a Wall: Hodjat again. It is implied that he breaks Nader's car's windshield in the climax, possibly to atone for the legal battle he launched against him.
- Rewatch Bonus:
- The scene where Razieh is fainting inside a bus after her first day of work makes a lot of sense once the audience learn that she was hit by a car.
- It's easy to miss when watching the film for the first time, but the money Nader accuses Razieh of having stolen is the money Simin uses to pay the movers near the beginning of the film.
- Riddle for the Ages:
- Who did Termeh decide to live with?
- Did Razieh fall down the stairs when Nader pushed her out of the apartment? Did she have a dizzy spell and fall down after he pushed her?
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Mrs. Ghahraei, who draws back her comment about Nader being a good man and refuses to meet with him again after seeing one of Hodjat's angry tantrums and her realization that she is dealing with a psychopath.
- Seamless Scenery: The scene where Nader demonstrates to Termeh why Razizeh could not have fallen down the stairs cuts neatly to him demonstrating the same for a policeman.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: The entire film. Simin and Nader divorce first and the foremost because of their differing opinions regarding how to care for Nader's father, as otherwise they seem to still love each other. Then Nader's father dies. But by then, it is too late for Nader to save his marriage. This is to show how meaningless their supposed victory really is: had Simin been more patient or Nader less uncompromising, they would still be together at the end.
- Solomon Divorce: Termeh's problem.
- Taking the Kids: The entire reason why Simin and Nader's divorce gets messy as it is because Simin wants to take Termeh outside Iran no matter what, but the law requires that she has to get an approval from her husband, who understandably doesn't want to, considering the present circumstances.
- Think of the Children!: Simin wants to emigrate because she wants to raise Termeh in a less restrictive society.
- Women Are Wiser: The women of the film all appear to be smarter than their male counterparts by virtue of trying to hold dialogues instead of breaking into tantrums whenever things don't work out as they like. Simin approaches the less-educated couple and willingly offers them blood money, her mother takes no hesitation to bail Nader out of the questioning room so he can gather evidences, while Termeh correctly deduces that Nader is lying when he said that he doesn't know Razieh is pregnant, without even forcing him. Even Razieh, who is responsible for starting the conflict in the first place, eventually admits that she doesn't really know what causes her miscarriage when she realizes that the conflict is spiraling way out of control. Meanwhile, Nader and Hodjat both play dumb and do not accept any reasoning, dragging the conflict further.
