(Iran/2011—directed by Asghar Farhadi)

The audience favorite at this year's Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prize and acting awards for all four lead performers, A Separation is an Iranian Rashomon – a searing contemporary family drama that ingeniously morphs into a gripping thriller. Married couple Simin (Leila Hatami) and Nader (Peyman Moadi) manage to finally obtain coveted visas to leave Iran for a life in the United States, where Simin hopes to provide a more promising future to their 11-year-old daughter. But Nader isn’t comfortable abandoning his ailing father, so the couple embark on a trial separation to make their child’s new life possible. To help him care for the old man, Nader hires a deeply religious woman who takes the job unbeknownst to her husband; almost immediately there are complications, culminating in an unexpected incident that challenges our own perceptions of who (if anyone) is to blame, what really happened, and what the legal and moral implications may be. Brilliant and unforgettable, A Separation was a critical sensation at the Toronto and New York Film Festivals. Winner, Best Foreign Language Film, New York Film Critics Circle. In Persian with English subtitles. (123 min.)

“A Triumph! Tense, complex and impressive. Audiences will be swept up.” –Alissa Simon, Variety

“A remarkably poised thriller, full of surprise developments. A film of great power and subtlety.” –Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian (UK)

"A riveting, edge-of-the-seat, rattling good film, excitingly paced and superbly edited." –London Evening Standard