The Past

The Past will follow you until your present

Review by Jenny Alvarez

Following a four year separation, Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) returns to Paris from Tehran, upon his estranged French wife Marie (Bérénice Béjo)’s request, in order to finalize their divorce procedure so she can marry her new boyfriend Samir (Tahar Rahim). During his tense brief stay, Ahmad discovers the conflicting nature of Marie’s relationship with her teenage daughter Lucie (Pauline Burlet).  Ahmad’s efforts to improve this relationship soon unveil a secret from their past, and the highly charged revelations affecting every character in Mr. Farhadi’s complex screenplay unfold with his trademark nuance. Once again he showcases his gifts as a masterful storyteller and director who elicits riveting performances from his cast.

It is an intricate and often brilliant drama, with restrained and intelligent movie especially when the story sustains its momentum due entirely to the writing and performances. The Past is so good even questionable scenes become great as the words when Farhadi could continue beyond his work in A Separation, he’s set that doubt aside. In some scenes you simply can’t and don’t want to stop watching. The Past is Iran’s submission to the 2014 Academy Awards for best foreign language film, despite its French producer. So delicately conceived, each subtle nuance is infinitely more crucial. For each character deserve to be expressed.