October 04-2013
Iran is submitting a second film in a row by director Asghar Farhadi as the official Iranian submission for an Oscar as Best Foreign Language Film next year.
The movie is “The Past,” which was filmed in France by a largely French cast and with a largely French production team. It is also in the French language.
That made its selection as Iran’s submission controversial with some. The Iranian links are Farhadi himself and one actor, who plays an Iranian role—that role is the soon-to-be-ex-husband of the film’s star.
But, in the end, the Farabi Cinema Foundation, which chooses the film to be submitted for an Oscar, went with “The Past.”
Farhadi’s “A Separation” was submitted for and won the 2012 Oscar for best Foreign Language Film. That movie was filmed in Persian in Iran.
Over the decades, 12 Oscar nominations have gone to Iranian expatriates, but none has won an Oscar. Farhadi and Majid Majidi are the only Iranians living in Iran to win nominations. Majidi won his in 1999 for Best Foreign Language Film for “Children of Heaven.” Farhadi not only had the 2012 nomination for Best Foreign Language Film for “A Separation,” but also won a nomination for Best Original Screenplay for that film.
For the 2013 Oscars, Iran did not submit any film, as a result of a political decision by the minister of culture at the time, who was protesting the production by a group of Egyptian Copts in the United States of an anti-Islam film, a movie that has still not been released. But there is now a new culture minister. It isn’t known if he played a role in the decision to select “The Past” despite the concern of conservatives that the film was more French than Iranian.
Ironically, both of Farhadi’s films are about marriages that are breaking up.
“A Separation” is about a couple splitting up because the wife wants to emigrate and the husband wants to stay to care or his aging father.
“The Past” is about an Iranian husband who returns to Paris four years after deserting his wife and going to Iran to sign divorce papers for his French wife. In Paris, he stumbles upon a secret weighing on his wife, their two daughters and the wife’s new boyfriend, a North African Arab.
Around 60 countries normally submit films for the Best Foreign language Film award. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will trim that down to five nominations early in the new year. The winner will be announced March 2 in Hollywood.