The Past (film)

The Past
File:The Past poster.jpg Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Asghar Farhadi
Produced by	Alexandre Mallet-Guy
Written by	Asghar Farhadi
Starring	Bérénice Bejo Tahar Rahim Ali Mosaffa
Music by	Youli Galperine Evgueni Galperine
Cinematography	Mahmoud Kalari
Edited by	Juliette Welfling
Production company	Memento Films Production France 3 Cinéma BIM Distribuzione Canal+ Ciné+ France Télévisions
Distributed by	Memento Films (France) BIM Distribuzione (Italy) Filmiran (Iran)
Release dates	17 May 2013 (2013-05-17) (Cannes) 19 June 2013 (2013-06-19) (Iran) 21 November 2013 (2013-11-21) (Italy)
Running time	130 minutes
Country	France Italy Iran
Language	French Persian
Budget	$8 million
Box office	$10.6 million

The Past (French: Le Passé) is a 2013 French–Italian–Iranian drama film, written and directed by Iranian director Asghar Farhadi and starring Bérénice Bejo, Tahar Rahim and Ali Mosaffa.

The film was nominated for the Palme d'Or award at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and won the festival's Prize of the Ecumenical Jury. Bejo also won the festival's Best Actress Award. It was shown at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.

The film was selected as the Iranian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated. The film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 71st Golden Globe Awards.

Plot

Ahmad, an Iranian man, returns to France after four years to finalise his divorce with his wife Marie. On the way to her home, he learns that she has begun a relationship with Samir, the owner of a dry cleaning service and he is to share a room with his son Fauod. At Marie's request, he speaks to her daughter from a previous marriage, Lucie, regarding her recent troubled behavior. She disapproves of Marie's new relationship.

Ahmad and Marie attend court to complete their divorce. Just before the meeting with the officials, she tells him that she is pregnant with Samir's child. Ahmad continues to counsel Lucie, hoping to reconcile her to the situation. She reveals that Samir is still married and his wife is in coma after a suicide attempt, caused by the revelation that Samir and Marie were conducting an affair. Samir tells Ahmad that his wife suffered from depression and the suicide attempt was in fact caused by an incident with a customer in his shop. His wife was unaware of his affair and he arranges for his employee, who witnessed both the suicide attempt and the incident in the shop, to meet with Lucie. After hearing her story, Lucie becomes distressed and confesses that she forwarded Marie's emails to Samir's wife the day before she tried to kill herself, after calling her at the dry cleaning shop. She disappears and Ahmad and Samir search for her. Ahmad finds Lucie, who has been staying with a friend, and tries to convince her to tell Marie what she did, saying that she had a right to know, now that she is carrying Samir's child. Lucie does so and Marie becomes enraged, telling Lucie to leave. Ahmad calms the situation and Lucie returns.

After questioning what feelings he may still hold for his wife, Marie tells Samir what Lucie did. Samir finds this hard to accept and questions his employee, Naïma, about the events leading up his wife's suicide attempt, who states his wife wasn't even in the shop the day that Lucie said she called. After Marie accuses Lucie of lying, Lucie maintains her version of events saying that she spoke to a woman with an accent on the phone. Samir realizes that she actually spoke to Naïma, who then gave Lucie his wife's email address. He confronts Naïma, who confesses and explains that his wife had always been jealous of her and had been trying to get her either sacked or deported from France and had initiated the confrontation with the customer. However, Naïma believes that his wife never read the emails, because she came into the shop and choose to drank bleach in front of her.

Samir and Marie discuss the events and their relationship. Marie decides that they should focus on their future, while Samir appears conflicted. Ahmad prepares to return to Iran. He says farewell to the children and attempts to talk to Marie about the end of their marriage, but Marie does not let him stating that she doesn't need to know such things now. Meanwhile, Samir visits his wife in hospital with a selection of perfumes, which the doctors have recommended in order to possibly initiate a response. He sprays on some of his cologne and leans over her, asking her to squeeze his hand if she can smell it. A tear runs down her face and he looks down at her hand, which is holding his.

Cast

• Bérénice Bejo as Marie Brisson

• Tahar Rahim as Samir
• Ali Mosaffa as Ahmad
• Pauline Burlet as Lucie
• Elyes Aguis as Fouad
• Jeanne Jestin as Léa
• Sabrina Ouazani as Naïma
• Babak Karimi as Shahryar
• Valeria Cavalli as Valeria
• Eleonora Marino as Marie's colleague

Reception

The film received positive reviews and holds a 93% "fresh" rating on review-aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 136 reviews, the consensus states: "Beautifully written, sensitively directed, and powerfully acted, The Past serves as another compelling testament to Asghar Farhadi's gift for finely layered drama." On Metacritic, the film has a 85/100 rating based on 41 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

The German-English website KinoCritics.com wrote the three main actors Bejo, Rahim and Mosaffa were convincing in their roles and added "a natural liveliness" to their scenes.

Accolades

Year	Group	Award	Result
2013	Alliance of Women Film Journalists	Best Foreign Language Film	Nominated
2013	Asia Pacific Screen Awards	Best Feature Film	Nominated
		Best Screenplay	Nominated
2014	Broadcast Film Critics Association	Best Foreign Language Film	Nominated
2013	Cannes Film Festival	Best Actress Award	Won
		Prize of the Ecumenical Jury	Won
		Palme d'Or	Nominated
2014	39th César Awards	Best Film	Nominated
		Best Director	Nominated
		Best Original Screenplay	Nominated
		Best Editing	Nominated
		Best Actress	Nominated
2014	Broadcast Film Critics Association	Best Foreign Language Film	Nominated
2013	Durban International Film Festival	Best Screenplay	Won
2013	Films from the South	Best Feature Film	Nominated
		Audience Award	Won
2014	Georgia Film Critics Association	Best Foreign Film	Nominated
2014	Golden Globes	Best Foreign Language Film	Nominated
2013	Louis Delluc Prize	Best Film	Nominated
2014	Lumières Award	Best Screenplay	Nominated
2014	4th Magritte Awards	Most Promising Actress	Won
2014	Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel Awards	Best Sound Editing In A Foreign Feature Film	Won
2013	National Board of Review	Best Foreign Language Film	Won
2013	New York Film Critics Circle	Best Foreign Language Film	Runner-up
2014	Palm Springs International Film Festival	FIPRESCI Prize for Best Actress	Won
2014	Prix Jacques Prévert du Scénario	Best Original Screenplay	Won
2013	San Francisco Film Critics Circle	Best Foreign Language Film	Nominated
2014	Satellite Awards	Best Foreign Language Film	Nominated
2013	Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival	Audience Award	Nominated
2013	Toronto Film Critics Association	Best Foreign Language Film	Nominated
2013	Utah Film Critics Association	Best Foreign Language Film	Runner-up
2013	Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association	Best Foreign Language Film	Nominated

See also

• 2013 in film
• List of French films of 2013
• List of Iranian films of the 2010s
• List of Iranian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
• List of Italian films of the 2010s
• List of submissions to the 86th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film

External links

• Official website at Sony Pictures Classics
• The Past at Box Office Mojo
• The Past at Metacritic
• The Past at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Past at IMDb