The Past

Overview

Concrete Playground has five double passes to give away to The Past which opens in cinemas on March 13. Click here to enter.

Iranian director Asghar Farhadi's follow-up to the Oscar-winning A Separation is an absorbing domestic drama about the perils of trying to move on before you've made peace with the past.

After four years in Tehran Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) returns to Paris at the request of his estranged wife Marie (Berenice Bejo). She wants a divorce but he only learns why once he arrives. She's shacked up with laundromat owner Samir (Tahar Rahim) and they plan to marry.

Marie asks Ahmad to stay at the family home instead of a hotel. One of her two daughters from a previous relationship, Lucie, (Pauline Burlet) is acting up and Marie wants his help to find out what's making her so angry and resentful. Ahmad puts up some resistance but it's short-lived. He has history with these kids and cares about them. Before he knows it he's caught in the middle of a horrible secret.

The ramshackle of a house where Marie and her two daughters live with Samir and his spirited son Fouad, (Elyes Aguis) reflects the messiness of Marie's domestic situation. Rooms remain half-painted and there's clutter everywhere. Suitcases belonging to Ahmad sit in the back shed as a not so subtle reminder of how the past can inform the present.

It's not a perfect narrative and there are arguably more plot twists than necessary in the second half but what makes this film so intriguing is the power of the performances. Mosaffa is really relatable as the outsider Ahmad and Burlet epitomises the troubled teenage girl who desperately wants to be recognised as a grown up.

It's easy to see why Bejo won Best Actress last year at Cannes Film Festival for her role as the long-suffering mother, she is mesmerising. But for me the most intriguing character is Samir. At first he comes across as quiet, reserved and a bit of a brute but over the course of the film we see a more gentle, caring side which he conveys not so much through his words but by his actions.

The Past may be a little overworked and implausible in places but overall it's a highly intelligent, thought-provoking and emotionally-charged drama.