My special year pass started on March 14th, and I went right away to view The Past. It comes from director and writer Asghar Farhadi, who wrote and directed the more-than-fantastic A Separation. This film again features the effects of divorce, and while I went into the film thinking it was going to be A Separation: Part Deux, I was proven wrong by how different the characters and the situation was compared to his previous film. The films look a lot alike because they were both worked on my cinematographer Mahmoud Kalari. There is very dark, gloomy, yet natural approach to his pictures that I think work well for both stories.
The Past is doesn't have the same tense momentum that A Separation features. Revelations pile up more slowly in The Past, and while I would say that A Separation's main theme was about lying, The Past is about secrets. These characters really care about each other, but they keep on inflicting wounds which causes bitter resentment, jealousy, and despair. The title is appropriately named, as the characters try to move on with their lives, but that seems hopeless until they deal with the ghosts from their history, particularly one ghost, the character Samir's ex-wife, who acts as a sort of Rebecca-like phantom.
The film has a great ensemble that work well together, and there is a specific chemistry each character has in relation to the others that I think the cast really brought out. Ali Mossafa as Ahmed holds the film together as the outsider who acts as the voice of reason. Ahmed's future ex-wife, Marie, played by Bérénice Bejo, is a woman who means well, but she is constantly reminded of her failures as a mother and a spouse. It was great to see Tahar Rahim again (I haven't seen him in anything since his debut in A Prophet.) He portrays Samir, Marie's fiancé, and he really creates a character that is constantly in mourning yet trying to move on, and Samir has more depth than I thought was there at the beginning.
Still, the real stars belong to the child actors (how come French movies always feature amazing child actors.) This may be because Farhadi didn't write them as angst ridden children witnessing their parents' relationship problems. There were inklings of this archetype at the beginning, and I was about ready to roll my eyes at the whole film, but these young characters developed to contain real emotions and drives. Samir's son Fouad, played by Elyes Aguis, was the character, to me, who seemed to be hurting the most. You can almost see the cuts in his heart. I want to add that Pop Culture Happy Hour did a discussion about teenage and child characters a month ago that I feel was thoughtful.
I recommend that you see it, particularly if you like A Separation (and who didn't?) It slows down towards the last act, which makes it a little less than perfect, and the plot points can be a little far fetched. With all of that being said, we are still left with an involving melodrama about how important communication is to a family, even if it involves shouting.
