Film Clip: A Separation

4 A SeparationWhen an Iranian couple can’t agree on whether to leave the country for the sake of a better life for their daughter or to remain to care for the husband’s Alzheimer’s-stricken father, the wife reluctantly files for divorce. This forces the husband to hire a day-care provider for his father, which in turn sets off a chain reaction of misunderstandings, conflicts, charges and countercharges, both legal and otherwise, between two families. Writer-director Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar-winning domestic slice-of-life drama seems to meander at first, until it becomes clear that his subject goes beyond a mere marital dispute. There are other separations on view besides this husband and wife; separations of class, of piety, of perspective. Farhadi is talking about Iranians, but with a profound decency anyone can understand. J.L.