Sweeping the Berlinale awards with wins for Best Film, Best Actor and Best Actress, A Separation is one of most engrossing films of the year.

A middle-class Iranian couple, already in the midst of an unpleasant separation, find themselves drawn into a web of half-truths and manipulation after the husband hires a lower-class caretaker for his Alzheimer's-stricken, elderly father.

Writer-director Asghar Farhadi (About Elly, MIFF 2009) has created a gripping and complex drama, one that teases out the intricacies and contradictions of modern Iranian society. Shades of grey abound in Farhadi's taut script, spinning a deceptively simple tale that examines just how subjective notions of justice and truth can be.

"Morally, psychologically and socially complex, it succeeds in bringing Iranian society into focus... in a way few other films have done." - Hollywood Reporter

D/S Asghar Farhadi P Negar Eskandarfar, Asghar Farhadi Dist Hopscotch L Persian w/English subtitles TD 35mm/2011