The Past

15 yrs 130 minutes • 2013 • 7.7

In the Oscar winning drama A separation the Iranian director Ashgar Farhadi portrays a separation itself. In Le passé he portrays what followed. Since the separation from Marie, Ahmad has been living in Tehran for four years, but on Marie’s request he returns to Paris to sign the divorce papers. It turns out that Marie is about to remarry, but the former spouses are still involved with each other. Marie’s new relationship is accepted by Ahmad, but the teenage daughter Lucie thinks it’s problematic. Fredrik Sahlin of Kulturnyheterna rates the movie 4 out of 5 and writes that it’s an “impressively multifaceted story, with extremely nuanced roles that evolves in front of our eyes into a quiet, yet powerful, drama about love, ethics, guilt and the role of the individual in a collective”. Le Passé was Iran’s contribution to the Oscars in 2014.