The Separation - Tumblr Posts
the separation film analysis
"Jodaeiye Nader az Simin" translated as “A Separation" got the Oscar award as best foreign film moreover many awards in the other countries.it is directed by Asghar Farhadi as well as the script is written by him. the film was more effective than a film in reason of acting which was not like a reading a simple script and the voyeuristic camera angles made the audience live the moment in film. The connection between the characters and the audience makes it a drama but it has tension in it with a character added in the plotline who is Hojjat and the audience is kept attached to film by the climaxes.
The separation seems like dealing with a simple matter as it is understood from the title. It exhibits a real life situation with realistic characters and there isn’t even music or effect to have a simple look to screenplay but actually it shows reality as simplicity. However it has many layers that shows the effect of a separation on individuals especially on tempeh(their daughter) who is like an outkast. The camera shows her alone and she doenst have friends.On the other hand the audience observes the way things happen in Iran. (the cultural differences from a western film is visible). It has more than one topic like class difference, gender roles, the effect of religion and cultural norms in society. The plotline is combined with effective characters to have vary of topic therefore it makes the simple matter become more effective on the audience and the characters in film. the film ends with a question mark and it doesn’t give any evidence about what happened to each character. Moreover it leaves the judgment to the audience.
Nader and simin are the main characters who have middle-income. Nader is a banker and Simin is an educator. Simin wants to go to England in order to have a better future for her family especially her daughter although Nader told her that he won’t be able to come because of his father who suffers Alzheimer. In the first opening scene it is visible to say something bad going to happen between nader and simin but they won’t be able to broke up. The plotline seems to be blaming simin at first because we pity the father who is sick and he is in poor situation. The decoration of his room, his clothing, the ventilator and the oxygen tube is making the audience understand his condition in a way that we put ourselves in the shoes of nader and not knowingly blame simin for what she wants. There is a scene that the ventilator and the foot of old man when he is lying is seen together which symbolizes that he is too old to live. It looks like he will die immediately if we pull the power plug. In addition he doesn’t want simin to go and he holds his hand to and doesn’t let her go. Also it is seen that they have a strong family relationship and the old man sees simin like her daughter and simin loves him too. They are very respectful culture to the elder ones. In these scenes it is visible to say an ıran house has many rooms and interesting structure that rooms are connected to each other and symbolic for family relationship. Tempeh could see her mother come when she was in her bedroom from a window that looks to indoor and it also has a big living room.
Simin finds a caretaker in order to take care of the old man. When they are both in the scene, the class difference and education is important for what women wears in Iran. Razieh wears hijab and she is religious in contrast with simin. She is like the foil character of simin who is not educated, really attached to family, doesn’t have the chance to talk much. They portray the women condition in ıran due to Razieh is too much connected to her husband, she has to get his approve for everything that she does and Simin is powerful women even when she is alone and doesn’t hold herself to speak her rights.
Razieh starts to job without the approval of hojjat (her husband).One day nader comes to home and sees that he can’t find his money and blames razieh for that. She is not at home in this scene than when nader comes and we initially learn that she has a reason for it. Moreover nader wants her to live but she has to get money in order to get back her house. At the meantime nader pushes her and she blames nader for miscarried child. By this part we can say that it has inner and outer realistic struggles depicting hardships and demonstrates the drama conventions. The camera follows the characters in this scene that makes the audience feel like someone in the house. We also see that religion is a figure in the society that bonds a wall between women and man. The raizeh was outside when this situation happened and it should be symbolic for women situation in ıran. The director shows that women don’t have the right to talk by letting her go outside before nader comes. The slow camera makes the audience observe the situation but it’s not judgmental because the truth and false isn’t visible. If the camera was weak in these scenes the film would not be that successful. I believe this part makes the audience attached to film. Moreover hojjat brings tension to the film with his entrance.
Hojjat is my favourite character in the film because he brought a new perspective to the film which is another layer that director indicates on. The difference between classes brings silence to poor people although hojjat learned to speak up for himself. He was fired from his job and told ‘go and take what you deserve if you can’. Hojjat resembles poor condition class of workers. He has high temper however his class difference is also effective on not taking serious. The screenplay is greenish-greyish and gives objective structure to film and also shows the conditions in Iran. The class difference and women issues taking big role in society and provocatively shown in the film even though it is banned by the government while it’s on production. The feministic and Marxist film theory can be examined in this film. the screenplay doesn’t visualize a male gaze but the silence of women is seen in the script. Razieh was not able to tell to truth until the end because of fright from her husband who also abused her violently. She accepted his actions and argued for his good therefore this is expected for women. The film shows class differences and the problems accur because of it. everybody should be able to take equal education and razieh was not able to take this both because of her gender and her class. In male dominated society women comes after man to get education. Furthermore the problems are not solved though the male power believes it is.
As a conclusion the separation is one of the best films I have ever watched with the deeper contents it deals with in a simplistic way. There isn’t music used until the end or it is from television. It shows the problems in ıran, there is no joy in society when there is many problems to be taken care of. The religion is like a shadow on many peoples and in fact it’s a misconception.