Having seen this excellent film already, your Editor can find nothing but superlatives in recommending "A Separation" to be screened by the Magnetic Island Film Society, this Saturday night at the RSL Hall in Arcadia.

A Separation is an Iranian film which takes us deep into the lives of people struggling with the dilemmas of contemporary life set amidst the extraordinary (to Australians at least) legal and cultural landscape of a country where religious strictures press down from the state but also rise up from large swathes of a deeply conservative society. A Separation happens somewhere in the middle where, gradually, the intensity builds as the character's develop.

We delve into an archaic legal system beset with modern world problems and while it would be so easy to turn this into a flash point to highlight an authoritarian Islamic legal system, instead we get to go much further.

This is incremental story telling in which all the characters deserve empathy if not always understanding. And, when we could have been served a didactic, polemic but easily burnt cinematic barbeque, Director, Asghar Farhadi, serves us a deeply satisfying, and finely flavoured Persian feast.

For more info, check out ABC's At the movies Margaret and David's review (Here). It's no surprise the film scores five stars from each.

Movie details:
Classification: PG

Duration: 118 mins

Genre: Drama

Director: Asghar Farhadi

Lead actors: Peyman Moadi and Leila Hatami

Cast: Saareh Bayat, Shahab Hosseini, Sarina Farhadi, Babak Karimi, Kimia Hosseini

Producer: Asghar Farhadi

Screenplay: Asghar Farhadi

Music: Sattar Oraki

Language: Iranian

Country: Iran

Screening Details:
Screening at the RSL Hall, 31 Hayles Avenue, Arcadia
Dinner Service, Refreshments & Bar available from 6.30pm till 8.00pm
Screening 8 pm (Each first Saturday of the month)
Please be early so we may start PROMPTLY at 8.00 pm

Admission:
Adults $10.00 Conc. $8.00 Members Free
Annual membership $50.00 Conc. $40.00 Annual membership includes admission for one calendar year (10 screenings) & discount to the Film Festival (March each year). Half-yearly also available.