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The Coastside Film Society presents a stunning tale of great divides in modern Iran.

A Separation

(Persian with English subtitles - 123 minutes)

Best Picture of the Year! The exposition may be “specifically Iranian, but I believe the more specific a film is about human experience, the more universal it is. The film combines a plot worthy of a great novel with the emotional impact of a great melodrama. It involves a struggle for child custody, the challenge of a parent with Alzheimer's, the intricacies of the law, and the enigma of discovering the truth. In its reconstruction of several versions of a significant event, it is as baffling as Rashomon." Roger Ebert,Chicago Sun Times

A Separation presents a compelling story about the forces that lead to fractures in a marriage in modern Iran. The initial conflict is that Simin wants to leave Iran to give her daughter a better life in the West, and her husband Nader wants to stay in Iran to take care of his ailing father. Simin and Nader love each other, and both have equally reasoned arguments — but only one path can be followed if the marriage is going to survive. As other people, each with their own unique perspectives, get pulled into the growing vortex, things begin to spin out of control. In time, it falls to the very conservative Iranian court system to decide the right and wrong of the matter.

Colin Covert writes in the Minneapolis Star Tribune: “The film is stunningly acted, emotionally universal and culturally specific in ways that make it all the more engrossing. A Separation moves beyond one couple's sundering marriage to reveal growing rifts between generations, ideologies, religious mind-sets, genders and classes in contemporary Iran. As for who is right judicially or morally, see it with a group of friends and prepare yourself for a long debate.”

Winner 2012 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film




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