The Past

'a film that announces this director's arrival in the rank of those film-makers like Kiarostami, Haneke and PT Anderson' ★★★★
- Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning A Separation visits the same territory of complex family relationships within repressive societies. Ahmad (Mosaffa) travels from his home in Teheran to Paris to finalise his divorce from his long-estranged wife, Marie (Bejo, The Artist). Already living with a much younger new partner (Rahim, Our Children) and his son, Marie appears to simply want a civilised closure, but as Ahmad is obliged to stay in their somewhat chaotic household, it’s soon obvious that this won’t be easy, especially when a shocking truth from the past is revealed.

Farhadi again lightly weaves a trenchant story brimful of twists, which benefits considerably from nuanced, intelligent performances from the three leads.