Jack and I liked this melodrama, the first Iranian picture to win an Oscar (Best Foreign Film), about a couple separating and life throwing a lot of curveballs at them. The situations could easily be here--other than the mom wanting to live in another, unidentified, country to give their daughter a better life (and some of my friends have said that if the election in November goes the wrong way, they'll be feeling that way right here, too). Shot in bustling Tehran, and very talky, considering the subtitles, it is easy to follow though packed with plot. There's really only one laugh in it, but it's not remotely a comedy. I did wonder, what with the beauties playing the mother Simin (Leila Hatami) and the housekeeper Razieh (Sareh Bayat), why the girl cast as the daughter Termeh isn't as gorgeous, and the reason is this: she (Sarina Farhadi) is the daughter of the director/writer Asghar Farhadi (his screenplay was Oscar-nominated, and the movie also won Best Foreign Film at the Critics Choice, Golden Globes, Independent Spirit Awards, Cannes, and more). And, for all we know, she may grow up to be lovely as the others, but in the movie she is an awkward adolescent. It took me most of the movie to figure out who the adorable little girl, Kimia Hosseini, playing Razieh's daughter Somayeh reminded me of, but I finally got it: Madeline Martin from Californication (here is Martin on the left), and on this link, Kimia is in the 15th photo and Sarina the 11th. Note that the names of the husband and wife, Nader and Simin, are in the literal Iranian title, but I don't know what the rest of it means. I haven't seen anything by the players in the movie, so my usual parenthetical histories are missing, but all of the acting is good, including the men: Peyman Moadit as Nader, Shahab Hosseini (no relation to Kimia) as Razieh's husband Hodjat, Ali-Asghar Shahbazi as Nader's father with Alzheimer's, and Babak Karimi (apparently better known as a film editor) playing the magistrate/judge/interrogator.
Although most of it was shot with a handheld camera, it didn't make me sick, and I'm quite sensitive to that technique, so no worries for those similarly afflicted. Do make a point of seeing this at your local theatre before it's gone.
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