The Past
Director: Asghar Farhadi
Cast: Berenice Bejo, Tahar Rahim, Ali Mosaffa, Pauline Burlet, Elyes Aguis, Jeanne Jestin, Sabrina Ouazani
Rating: (M)
4 stars (out of 5)
As the follow-up to his acclaimed 2011 film A Separation, Iranian writer-director Asghar Farhadi hasn't managed to scale quite the same heights but he gets close.
Replicating many similar themes associated with relationship breakdowns and family tensions, it's Farhadi's nuanced direction of his cast that elevates his films above many others trawling through the same territory.
Substituting the cloistered confines of a Teheran apartment for a French townhouse, The Past focuses on Ahmed (Ali Mosaffa), an Iranian who arrives in France to formalise his divorce from Marie (Berenice Bejo).
After a lukewarm reception at the airport and a confused encounter with Marie's daughter and stepson, it's very apparent that there is a lot of information that we don't have, but that is critical to the cleverness in Farhadi's writing.
When we meet Marie's 14-year-old daughter Lucie, who surprisingly seems to have a much warmer relationship with Ahmed than her mother and ''new'' stepfather Samir (Tahar Rahim), there are hints of abuse that might explain why she is plagued by something far greater than mere teenage angst.
From Ali Mosaffa's dignified portrayal of a man resigned to severing his ties to the past, to Bejo's impassioned depiction of a woman plagued by romantic misadventure, The Past starts relatively benignly but slowly builds to a blistering showdown that has all the characters questioning their decisions and loyalties.
Best thing: The performance of child actor Elyes Aguis as 7-year-old Fouad.
Worst thing: Waiting for that feel-good factor to arrive.
See it with: An ex-partner or two.
