{"id":623,"date":"2014-09-16T15:53:43","date_gmt":"2014-09-16T19:53:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=623"},"modified":"2026-09-17T15:46:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T19:46:29","slug":"the-past-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=623","title":{"rendered":"The Past-2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Past-2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Asghar Farhadi<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring B\u00e9r\u00e9nice Bejo<\/span><\/span>, Tahar Rahim, Ali Mosaffa<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #171<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"70275523\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed September 16, 2014<\/p>\n

Grade: B+<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Past (2013) is an international film directed by acclaimed Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, who directed the brilliant A Separation in 2012.<\/p>\n

Despite being directed by an Iranian director, the film is written in French and set in France.<\/p>\n

While not quite on the level of A Separation, The Past is still a good, layered, and compelling film, though admittedly slow-paced in spots, like real life.<\/p>\n

The film centers on a couple, Marie (B\u00e9r\u00e9nice Bejo) <\/span><\/span>and Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa), amid a divorce.<\/p>\n

Marie lives in France with her two daughters from a relationship before Ahmad, so they have no children together. He lives in Iran and comes to visit and finalize the divorce proceedings.<\/p>\n

Further complicating the situation is that Marie is in a relationship with another man, Samir (Tahar Rahim)<\/span><\/span>, who has a son with his current wife, who is a vegetable in a coma after a suicide attempt.<\/p>\n

What were the events that led her to attempt suicide? Did someone reveal something of importance to her? If so, who?<\/p>\n

Questions such as these compel viewers to invest in the characters.<\/p>\n

The Past is an excellent family drama done right; it has no needless stereotypes, and the children serve a purpose beyond being cute or attractive wallpaper, as in many family dramas.<\/p>\n

Each child involved- there are 3- has real feelings and realistically expresses themselves. All three principal adult characters are mature, complicated, and have depth.<\/p>\n

Nobody is the villain, and the intent is not to make the audience root for one couple over the other. The film is more mysterious than that.<\/p>\n

Instead, the audience spends the film trying to uncover the secrets the characters keep.<\/p>\n

Is Marie ready to divorce Ahmad or does she still love him? Does Samir blame Marie for his wife’s condition? Why does the oldest daughter hate Samir so much?<\/p>\n

These are questions that arise more and more as The Past unfolds.<\/p>\n

Another interesting facet of the film is that it introduces no red herrings to manipulate the viewer. The film is simply a detailed, complex drama.<\/p>\n

All three leads give wonderful performances, though I’m not sure why Bejo’s stands out.<\/p>\n

After watching and reflecting, I noticed many similarities to A Separation.<\/p>\n

The Past (2013) is a good, solid family drama, with rich writing and honest, compelling situations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Past-2013 Director Asghar Farhadi Starring B\u00e9r\u00e9nice Bejo, Tahar Rahim, Ali Mosaffa Scott’s Review #171 Reviewed September 16, 2014 Grade: B+ The Past (2013) is an international film directed by acclaimed Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, who directed the brilliant A Separation in 2012. Despite being directed by an Iranian director, the film is written in … Continue reading The Past-2013<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,192,442,41,211,35,213,2651],"tags":[3915,3295,3914,12682,2759,12124],"class_list":["post-623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2013-films","category-dramas","category-french-films","category-indiefilms","category-indie-dramas","category-foreignfilms","category-foreign-dramas","category-persian","tag-ali-mosaffa","tag-asghar-farhadi","tag-berenice-bejo","tag-pauline-burlet","tag-tahar-rahim","tag-valeria-cavalli"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=623"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24531,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623\/revisions\/24531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}