A Separation

A Separation

            The movie “A Separation” is based on a story about a married couple that suffers various conflicts of interest and end up in separation. One of the main reason why they got separated is because the wife in the relationship, Simin, wanted to move her family to the United States since the finally acquired a US visa. Simin also did not want her 11-year-old daughter, Termeh, growing up in Iran under the religious and prevailing traditions. However her husband, Nader, felt as though he could not just get up and abandon his sick father and move to the United States. Nader has the responsibility to take care of his old man seeing as he cannot take care of himself for the reason that he has been diagnosed with the sufferable disease Alzheimer’s. Therefore Nader simply refused to move.

            Simin went on to file a divorce because she could not believe how “selfish” he was being at the chance of having a brand new and “better” life. Simin’s request to file a divorce was, however, declined for the reason that he reasoning was not sufficient enough. Simin ended up moving out of the house and back into her parent’s house. Termeh stayed living with her father. Now Nader needed help with taking care of his father while he is away at work every day, Monday through Friday. In order to be helpful, Simin suggested a woman to her (separated) husband, so Nader called the woman, Razieh, who is a young and deeply religious woman, and hired her. Razieh began working almost right away, she brought along her young daughter.

            What Nader does not know is Razieh purposely failed to mention her new job to her hot-tempered husband Hodjat for the reason that he would most certainly not approve of his wife taking care of an elderly man. Razieh then found the job to be too overwhelming for her so she decided to resign. However she had the brillian idea that Nader could hire Hodjat in her place because he was also looking for paid work. After conducting an interview with Hodjat, Nader hired him. On his first day, Nader was unfortunately taken to jail by his creditors due to having immensely bad credit , so Razieh went in place of her husband. This is where the story begins to unfold. Nader did not know Razieh was pregnant until after he hired her.

            It turns out that one day Nader got home from work and found his father laying in the floor unconscious without his breathing tank and hand-cuffed to the bed. He blamed Razieh for abandoning him for some hours which is something she is prohibited to do when she has his father as her responsibility. Out of anger Nader grabbed Razieh and pushed her out of his apartment. Razieh used this excuse against Nader to make him look guilty for her miscarriage.

             I did enjoy this movie because it was suspenseful and it left me wanting to watch more until the very end. This is definitely a movie I would recommend to anyone who likes watching international films.