A Separation (Persian: جدایی نادر از سیمین, romanized: Jodāi-e Nāder az Simin; lit.

Simin wants the whole family to leave Iran and has prepared the visas, but Nader wishes to stay to care for his father, who lives with them, and has Alzheimer's disease.

Nader hires Razieh, a deeply religious woman from a poor and distant suburb, to take care of his father during the day.

The next day, Nader and Termeh come home early and discover the old man lying unconscious on the floor in his bedroom, tied to the bed.

When they return, Razieh says she had some urgent personal business; Nader accuses her of neglecting his father and stealing some money (which Simin had in fact used to pay some movers).

There is now a series of claims and counter-claims before a criminal judge: on one side, Nader, with Simin and Termeh; on the other, Razieh and her husband, Hodjat.

Termeh finds reasons to believe this is not true, and Nader at last admits to her that he has lied for her sake and his father's: he cannot go to prison.

The website's critical consensus states, "Morally complex, suspenseful, and consistently involving, A Separation captures the messiness of a dissolving relationship with keen insight and searing intensity",[15] as well as a score of 95 on Metacritic based on 41 reviews,[16] making it the best-reviewed film of 2011.

[17] Deborah Young of The Hollywood Reporter wrote from the Berlinale: Just when it seemed impossible for Iranian filmmakers to express themselves meaningfully outside the bounds of censorship, Asghar Farhadi's Nader and Simin, A Separation comes along to prove the contrary.

Apparently simple on a narrative level yet morally, psychologically and socially complex, it succeeds in bringing Iranian society into focus for in a way few other films have done.Young noted how Farhadi portrayed Iran's social and religious divisions, and complimented the film's craft: As in all the director's work, the cast is given top consideration and their realistic acting results in unusual depth of characterization.

Though the film lasts over two hours, Hayedeh Safiyari's fast-moving editing keeps the action tensely involving from start to finish.

[18]In a strongly positive review from Screen Daily, Lee Marshall wrote: Showing a control of investigative pacing that recalls classic Hitchcock and a feel for ethical nuance that is all his own, Farhadi has hit upon a story that is not only about men and women, children and parents, justice and religion in today's Iran, but that raises complex and globally relevant questions of responsibility, of the subjectivity and contingency of "telling the truth", and of how thin the line can be between inflexibility and pride – especially of the male variety – and selfishness and tyranny.

[19]Alissa Simon from Variety called it Farhadi's strongest work yet and described it: Tense and narratively complex, formally dense and morally challenging...

The provocative plot casts a revealing light on contempo Iranian society, taking on issues of gender, class, justice and honor as a secular middle-class family in the midst of upheaval winds up in conflict with an impoverished religious one.

The American films made this year that deal with the internal detail and difficulty of family life – like The Descendants — are airy, pretty and affluent compared with A Separation.

With the best will in the world, George Clooney cannot discard his aura of stardom, yet the actors in the Iranian film seem caught in their characters' traps.

"[31] Iranian critic Massoud Farasati, whose views are close to those of the Islamic regime, said "The image of our society that A Separation depicts is the dirty picture westerners are wishing for".

David Fincher, Meryl Streep, Brad Pitt, and Angelina Jolie spoke to Farhadi during the awards season each offering their praise for him and the film.