Jodaeiye Nader az Simin 2011

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Simin's and Nader's divorce debate is the first of many complex issues raised and passionately argued in A Separation. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Movies with this kind of moral complexity are rare, so not only is it worth seeking out, it's one you need to see with friends because it invites -- or rather demands -- debate afterward. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: ...interesting, and engaging, in both a storytelling and sociological/cultural study fashion. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: It is a rigorously honest movie about the difficulties of being honest, a film that tries to be truthful about the slipperiness of truth. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Getting absorbed in the film's complex layers of procedural negotiation and domestic argument, you'll realize that we often settle for too little from our screenplays. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: What makes it so good is that no one is bad. These humans, desperate to do right, are caught up in a perfect storm of inhumanity. The evil is in the ecosystem. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: "A Separation" could hardly be more concrete, or contemporary, or dramatic. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: Partly a courtroom drama, partly a political satire and partly a twisty thriller that gradually draws you in and becomes more engrossing with each new revelation. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Beyond the impeccable performances and direction, it's foremost an exceptional piece of screenwriting, so finely wrought that the drama seems guided by an invisible hand. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: "A Separation" is a great movie, a look inside a world so foreign that it might as well be another planet, yet so universal that its observations are painfully familiar to anyone, anywhere. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: This is a trenchant emotional thriller that you watch in dread, awe, and amazing aggravation. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: This is primarily a human story about a marriage unraveling, the husband torn between love for his daughter and devotion to his father, the daughter torn between one parent and the other. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Some films wear their artistry so lightly they appear simply to be happening, the inner workings of the story guided by an unseen hand. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: A Separation is not the work of a constrained artist. It's a great movie in which the full range of human interaction seems to play itself out before our eyes. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: To say the piercing Iranian film A Separation is about divorce is a bit like saying The Wizard of Oz is about a pair of slippers. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Very few movies capture as convincingly as A Separation does the ways in which seemingly honorable decisions can lead to interpersonal conflict -- even disaster. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: These people seem so real they might live next door. And they probably do. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The film wraps us, with stunning directness, in the complex folds of its characters' passions. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: Crafts a minefield out of the mundane and may very well be a masterpiece for it. Read more

Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter: Tensely involving Iranian drama with niche potential. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: It's a thrilling domestic drama that offers acute insights into human motivations and behavior as well as a compelling look at what goes on behind a particular curtain that almost never gets raised. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Sometimes, in an attempt to do the best we can for the people we love, we end up wreaking irreparable damage. Read more

David Thomson, The New Republic: You cannot watch the film without feeling kinship with the characters and admitting their decency as well as their mistakes. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Asghar Farhadi's emotionally epic movie is not just a masterpiece dramatically, it is a movie dramatically of its moment. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: The miracle of A Separation is that it doesn't spare any of its characters, nor does it seek to indict them. It is a democratic portrait of a theocratic world. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: We can't believe our own eyes. How can we begin to pick one of the many competing narratives before us? Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR: A constant surprise, a film that captures the drama and suspense of real life as urgently as any picture released this year. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Together and apart, Hatami and Maadi are magnetic. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: A downbeat family drama of no particular distinction gradually turns into a mystery that raises painful moral questions. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: It's small. It's real. And it's deeply moving. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: It's an indictment of a culture in which religion and tradition poison a legal system. It is an exploration of the power of a lie. It is a mystery and a courtroom drama. Above all, however, it is a tale of love and sacrifice. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The film involves its audience in an unusually direct way, because although we can see the logic of everyone's position, our emotions often disagree. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film belongs right here... 'A Separation' is a landmark film. No way will you be able to get it out of your head. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: It's a deceptive, Hitchcockian mystery whose clues are laid out so carefully you'll probably miss them, and a complex philosophical fable in which every character is morally compromised. Read more

Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle: Farhadi is less concerned with the bugs and variations in human perception than cracks in the average moral compass, little fault lines that prompt good people to make bad decisions. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Asghar Farhadi's A Separation serves as a quiet reminder of how good it's possible for movies to be. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: "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. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "A Separation" is a plaintive fable of the human condition that unites us. Read more

Jon Frosch, The Atlantic: Dynamically shot and paced like a thriller, the film has the density and moral prickliness of a good novel. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: In the guise of a whodunit, Farhadi paints a nuanced portrait of Iranian society that, seen through our Western eyes, looks at once utterly alien and strikingly familiar. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: 'A Separation' is lively and suspenseful as both drama and debate. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Rashomon-like in its perceptual complexities, truth vs. belief, Asghar Farhadi's drama forces us to constantly shift our assessments and allegiances. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Sophisticated and universal yet deeply intimate, A Separation is an exquisitely conceived family drama that has the coiled power of a top-notch thriller. Read more

Alissa Simon, Variety: Tense and narratively complex, formally dense and morally challenging. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: What's fascinating is how the various issues -- religious or practical -- are played out in these two quite different families, yet always come down to irreconcilable differences between rebellious women and their stiff-necked, controlling men. Read more