In the Iranian film A Separation, the father of the main male character has Alzheimer’s.
A Separation won an award for the best foreign language film, which is not necessarily something to be proud of, but it will presumably mean more people will pay to watch it.
It seems that in Iran people have just got used to living under the mullahs & life goes on.
In a sense A Separation is a film about ordinary people leading ordinary lives. In fact it was quite theatrical inasmuch as the action mostly takes place in the flat where the couple live & where the father who has Alzheimer’s lives with them. The action, which is dialogue based, moves fast. In the end the father who has Alzheimer’s wanders out from the flat & is hit by a car when the person employed to look after him is distracted. At the end, after going through all the bureaucracy & red tape, nothing much is finally decided. The acting is excellent. One presumes that the film goes to the edge of what is acceptable in Iran. It is certainly an advance upon endless films about the innocence of childhood. The impression was that the main characters, the couple that is, were either not believers or were not fervent believers. I doubt if those who rule the country thought much about the Green Wave about which I have written in another post.
It is an achievement of sorts to win an Oscar. Personally I would be embarrassed by the winning of such an award. Woody Allen doesn’t attend Oscar ceremonies even when he wins. But it isn’t going to do much to raise awareness of the human rights abuses in Iran. Unfortunately, mostly people who see the film & who have only the vaguest notion or indeed no idea of what is going on in Iran may well conclude that Iran is (almost) a Western liberal democracy.
But from the point of the Alzheimer’s problem the depiction of the father is interesting & rings true. I am tempted to say that it is a great film. It is certainly a very good film.
Andrew's space 