A SEPARATION

Winner of several awards (including BBC4 Cinema Awards 2011 and the Golden Bear at Berlin), this is a compelling drama set in contemporary Iran depicting the meltdown of a domestic situation in which a married couple debate the decision between leaving the country to improve the prospects of their young daughter or stay and look after a parent with Alzheimer’s. The film develops into a complex moral dilemma that pitches religion against economics and, with creeping tension, brilliantly encapsulates the fissures in Iranian society that affect class and gender.