‘The death of love’ – that’s the origination point of Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s movies. His Oscar winning art-house favorite of this decade, “A Separation” started from the bitterness between an unhappily married husband and wife. He subtly conveyed the emotional turmoil around the couples, especially their abandoned daughter and ailing relative. The tears’ viewers shed for the characters were not squeezed by some emotionally manipulative shots. It placed the helpless viewers amid interpersonal, household, and familial crises. Now, Farhadi is back with another captivating domestic crisis drama, “The Past” (2013), which will once again linger in your mind long after its final frame.
Like the Iranian auteur Abbas Kiarostami, Farhadi was forced
to work outside his country due to his government’s interventions. He has
shifted his camera from the hypocritical family issues of Iran to the darker
consequences of easy-breezy relationship in France. However, this transition
hasn’t caused any damage to his thematic sensibilities. He once gain throws us
into a chaotic family, where everything is, initially, a mystery. When the past
is revealed slowly and naturalistically (mostly through conversations), you
could feel that you are witnessing a strong work of one of cinema’s most
universal storyteller.
Marie (Berenice Bejo) is looking for her ex-Iranian husband Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) at Charles de Gaulle Airport. He has come back to France after four
years, to sign the divorce papers and both of them, soon starts quarreling
inside the car. Marie-Anne wants to start a new life with her boyfriend, Samir
(Tahar Rahim). Marie has two daughters by yet another man -- the 16 year old
Lucie (Pauline Burlet), who resents her mother’s new relationship and little
Léa (Jeanne Jestin). Lucie loves Ahmad as her father, even though he isn’t. Samir
runs a dry-cleaning store. He and his little boy Fouad (Elyes Aguis) have moved
in with Marie-Anne. Ahmad is annoyed because Marie hasn’t booked him a room at
hotel and is now asking him to stay in her chaotic house.
He soon finds himself amidst all sorts of problems. Little
Fouad is distressed because his mother, Celine is in hospital after an
attempted suicide. There is shady past behind her suicide attempt and another
intriguing fact is that Samir is yet to divorce his wife, Celine. The estranged
teenage girl Lucie wants Samir out of her household and looks like carrying a
terrifying truth that might shatter everyone’s life. The situation gets
increasingly complicated when Marie announces that is pregnant with Samir’s
child, who at the same time becomes doubtful about her relationship with Samir.
The story might sound soap-operatic, but what unfolds
on-screen is an intense realistic portrayal of multicultural Western life. For
a movie named ‘Past’, surprisingly there are no showy flashbacks. The
characters interact with each other from starting to finish, pushing the story
forward, leaving us with a strangely compelling feeling to find out what has
happened. Unlike, American dysfunctional family drama, “The Past” lacks any big
dramatic moments or histrionics. The characters build themselves elegantly,
conveying their love and resentments effortlessly. Farhadi and Massoumeh Lahidji’s script loads the storyline with abundant details and plot surprises,
while never forgetting to take the story out of the limit of plausibility.
Initially, we witness some complications in the narrative, but in the end,
everything feels layered and relevant. Atoning
for past sins is the film’s one of important themes. Wrongdoings of the
children are often confronted by the adults to make them say the word “Sorry”;
however, when an adult like Samir apologizes for his bad behavior, he is told
that he doesn’t easily get off. It insists that the act of instant apologies and
atonement are dismissing us from the misdeeds of past and provokes us to repeat
the act.
The masterly framed shots of Farhadi stages most of the
events inside living quarters, cafes and cars. These claustrophobic domestic
areas, which reveal layers of mystery, reflect the gathering stress and strain
of the characters. Although the plot travels close to the melodramatic
territory, Farhadi’s shots avoid the manipulation of viewers’ emotions. He also
includes micro details to each of the sequences, like the opening scene in
airport, where the frustrated Marie and Ahmad try to communicate through the
barrier that separates them – which metaphorically reveals the nature of their
relationship. Later, in that same scene, Ahmad watches Marie getting into an
unfamiliar car (Samir’s) and while backing out of the parking spot almost hits
something. Farhadi cleverly follows this sequence with opening title, which is
like premonition for the disaster to come. Or, you can say that ‘backing out’
(the past) is going to cause pain. Farhadi is superior in capturing
communication breakdowns, since everyone in this movie is engulfed by either
guilt or regret. Violent exits and abruptly raised voices soon follow these
breakdowns. The final scene, where Samir
visits Céline at the hospital, culminating with a shot of a finger, is one of
the most overpowering directorial strokes.
The performances are not like acting the part. We don’t even
notice how great they are because don't do the usual things. From Bejo to
little Elyes Aguis (as Fouad), everyone remains as people do in real life, very
present and secretive. Bejo as the brittle Marie doesn’t try in an obligatory
manner to make us like her. She remains desperate and ferocious throughout and
hints through certain firestorm emotions that she was once a vivacious woman.
As Ahmad, Ali Mosaffa is immediately likeable. Burlet as the tormented teenager and the two
children effortlessly shows the psychological wounds they carry as the result
of domestic warfare taking place in their homes.
“The Past” is a
universal tale, since it displays people, whose desire is to escape the past. It
shows how our rash actions could inextricably intertwine others and yet at the
same time leave us alone.
Trailer
Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material and brief strong language
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