Le Passé (2013)
Directed by Asghar Farhadi

Film Review

In 2011, Iran's leading film director Asghar Farhadi garnered international acclaim with his fifth feature, A Separation, a compelling character piece about a couple who are racked by a life-changing family dilemma.  The film won Farhadi a brace of awards, including the Best Foreign Film César and Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, and secured his reputation as one of the world's most preeminent cineastes.  His follow-up film, Le Passé (a.k.a. The Past), is a similarly intense drama which allowed Farhadi once again to revisit themes that are dear to him: family conflict, male rivalry and the ambiguous, constantly evolving nature of human relationships.

Le Passé is the first film that Farhadi made outside his native Iran and also his first film to be made in French.  The cast brings together the well-regarded Iranian actor-turned-director Ali Mosaffa and two of France's most sought after actors: Bérénice Bejo (The Artist, 2011) and Tahar Rahim (Un Prophète, 2009), both César winners.  Ever the perfectionist, Farhadi subjected his actors to a strenuous period of rehearsals before shooting the film, relaying all of his instructions through an interpreter as he is unable to speak French.  This intensive preparation is reflected in the quality of the performances that each of the actors brings to the screen.  Bejo received the Best Actress award at Cannes in 2013 for her arresting portrayal of a woman torn between her loyalties to the past she cannot let go of and the future she desperately wants to embrace.  Rahim, cast very much against type, is equally spellbinding, his performance evincing a surprisingly humane side which is at its most heartrending in one touching father-son interlude in the Paris métro - Rahim claims he took his inspiration from De Sica's Bicycle Thieves (1948).  Mosaffa's quiet, understated presence makes his the more interesting and likeable of the three main characters, and whilst Bejo and Rahim have a stronger screen presence neither quite matches the depth and subtlety of Mosaffa's performance.

Perhaps because Farhadi is trying a little too hard to conform to pre-conceived, stereotypical notions of what a French auteur film should be, Le Passé doesn't quite have the purity of expression, originality and visceral impact of the director's previous cinematic masterpieces (About Elly, A Separation).  The narrative is punctuated by the kind of lame contrivances that would irk even in a third rate soap opera, and at times you can't help wishing Farhadi had taken the effort to prune the dialogue, as the film appears needlessly wordy in places.  Fortunately, Farhadi's skill as a director makes up for these obvious scripting deficiencies and, assisted by an impeccable trio of lead actors and excellent supporting cast, he turns in another riveting slice-of-life drama that resounds with truth and wisdom.

As its title implies, Le Passé is a film that explores our complex relationship with the past.  The past may be a foreign country (to quote L.P. Hartley) but it is one to which we are continually drawn, the firmament on which are lives are founded and the one source of consolation in a world of ever-growing uncertainty.  The past is also a psychological graveyard strewn with misgivings and regrets, a place of a eternal sorrow.  It is this potent yet ambivalent connection to the past that Farhadi so eloquently expresses in his film, through three very different characters who are each incapable of severing the umbilical chord to the past.

Le Passé is also a film that shows how hard it is for individuals to communicate with one another, even when they think they know each other intimately.  Marie's inability to convey her thoughts to the two men in her life is mirrored by her daughter's lack of empathy for her mother.  From the poignant sequence near the start of the film, when Marie and Ahmad meet at an airport and try to make contact through a barrier, to the devastating final scene, the characters are better at communicating via visual cues rather than words.  If anything, words prevent them from imparting what needs to be said, an artificial construct that merely exacerbates the emotional distance between the protagonists.  Asghar Farhadi's French film debut is far from being an unqualified success but it addresses some profound human themes with maturity and insight - not quite in the same league as A Separation, but a thoughtful and compassionate piece of cinema all the same.

Film Synopsis

Four years after their separation, Ahmad travels from Teheran to Paris at the request of his wife Marie so that they can formalise their divorce.  Marie is now in a relationship with another man, Samir, and lives with him in a house in the suburbs of Paris, along with his five-year-old son and her two daughters from a previous relationship.  During his brief stay under Marie's roof, Ahmad cannot help noticing the strained relationship between his former wife and her daughter Lucie.  As he attempts to improve matters between mother and daughter Ahmad unwittingly lifts the lid on a long buried secret...