has received tremendous accolades abroad, but is now getting criticism at home for allegedly supporting the US and Zionist agenda.
The film, about the divorce of a middle-class Tehran couple and their legal battle with a working class family over a dispute, has received several major international awards, including the Golden Globe in January and the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 2011. It is also the favorite to win the best foreign language film at the Oscars.
Critics from The New York Times to the Boston Globe have all praised the film, and the online review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 99% “freshness” rating, one of the highest for any movie this year.
But the reception back home has been less than favorable. Masud Ferasati, an Iranian writer associated with the regime, said on state TV that the many awards the film has received were politically motivated. He also added that the film depicts “the dirty picture [of Iran] Westerners are wishing for.”
“On one hand, they [the West] impose sanctions against us, and, on the other, they give awards to our film, to send us a positive signal. I think this [the film’s success] is an illusion. This is not a good film,” Ferasati said.
Other opinion makers closely aligned with the Islamic Republic’s conservative government also criticized the movie. Filmmaker Jamal Shujreh said the awards the film has collected have a political nature.
“Ninety-nine percent of foreign festivals are political, and Asghar Farhadi’s film has been awarded by these festivals because it’s compatible with the policies of American politicians,” he told a gathering of Iranian youth at a conference.
Iranian state media reported Monday that “Separation” was scheduled to be screened in Israel with Hebrew subtitles. That report touched off a firestorm of controversy.
“If Farhadi was committed to Iran and its people, he should have announced that the film would not be screened in Israel,” Shujreh said.
Fars news went a step ahead to criticize Farhadi himself, finding fault in the director’s handshakes with females.
While regime-linked critics have issued scathing criticism of the film, the government’s attitude toward the film and its director has been more conflicted.
The government initially gave its approval for the film, then later revoked its license for a short while after Farhadi voiced his support for Jafar Panahi, an Iranian filmmaker imprisoned in 2010 on charges of sedition.
“Separation” has even won government-sponsored awards at domestic film festivals. And it was a Culture Ministry body that submitted the film to the US Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences for an Oscar.