The Past
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAsghar Farhadi
Written byAsghar Farhadi
Produced byAlexandre Mallet-Guy
StarringBérénice Bejo
Tahar Rahim
Ali Mosaffa
CinematographyMahmoud Kalari
Edited byJuliette Welfling
Music byYouli Galperine
Evgueni Galperine
Production
companies
Memento Films Production
France 3 Cinéma
BIM Distribuzione
Canal+
Ciné+
France Télévisions
Distributed byMemento 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[1]
CountriesFrance
Italy
Iran
LanguagesFrench
Persian
Italian
Budget$8 million
Box office$10.6 million[2][3]

The Past (French: Le Passé, Persian: گذشته Gozašte) 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.[4]

The film was nominated for the Palme d'Or award at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival[5][6] and won the festival's Prize of the Ecumenical Jury.[7] Bejo also won the festival's Best Actress Award.[8][9] It was shown at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.[10]

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.[11]

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 Samir's son Fouad. At Marie's request, he speaks to her daughter from a previous marriage, Lucie, regarding her recent troubled behavior. Lucie 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 a 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 Naïma, his employee, who witnessed both the suicide attempt and the incident in the shop, to meet with Lucie.

After hearing Naïma's story, Lucie becomes distressed and confesses that she forwarded Marie and Samir’s email correspondence to Samir's wife the day before she tried to kill herself, after calling her at the dry cleaning shop. Lucie 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 Marie has a right to know, now that she is carrying Samir's child. Lucie does so and Marie becomes enraged, telling Lucie to leave, which she does. Ahmad calms the situation and Marie goes after Lucie, asking her to come back, which she does.

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 Naïma about the events leading up his wife's suicide attempt. Naïma 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 chose to drink bleach in front of her, instead of in front of Samir or Marie.

Samir and Marie discuss the events and their relationship. Samir decides that they should focus on their future, while Marie 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 the hospital with a selection of perfumes, which the doctors have recommended in order to possibly initiate a response. He sprays onto his neck some of his cologne and leans over her lying comatose in her hospital bed. With his face close to his wife's he whispers to her to squeeze his hand if she can smell it. A tear rolls down her cheek but she remains comatose, and he looks down at her hand, which may or may not be holding his. It is unclear in the final scene whether she is responsive or not.

Cast

Reception

The film received universal critical acclaim. It holds a 93% "certified fresh" rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 144 reviews with a weighted average score of 8.2/10 and the site's consensus: "Beautifully written, sensitively directed, and powerfully acted, The Past serves as another compelling testament to Asghar Farhadi's gift for finely layered drama."[14] On Metacritic, the film has a normalized score of 85% based on 41 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[15]

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.[16]

Accolades

YearGroupAwardResult
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[17] Best Actress Award Won
Prize of the Ecumenical Jury Won
Palme d'Or Nominated
2014 39th César Awards[18] 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[19] 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[11] 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[20][21] Best Sound Editing in a Foreign Feature Film Won
2013 National Board of Review[22] 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

References

  1. ↑ "The Past (12A)". Artificial Eye. British Board of Film Classification. 20 January 2014. Retrieved 29 April 2014.
  2. ↑ "Le Passé (The Past)". JPBox-Office.
  3. ↑ The Past at Box Office Mojo
  4. ↑ Lavallee, Eric (11 January 2013). "Top 100 Most Anticipated Films of 2013: #77. Asghar Farhadi's The Past". ioncinema.com. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
  5. ↑ "2013 Official Selection". Cannes Film Festival. 18 April 2013. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
  6. ↑ "Screenings Guide" (PDF format). Cannes Film Festival. Retrieved 11 May 2013.
  7. ↑ "Cannes: 'Blue Is the Warmest Color' Wins Fipresci Prize". Variety. 26 May 2013. Retrieved 26 May 2013.
  8. ↑ "Cannes Film Festival: Awards 2013". Cannes Film Festival. 26 May 2013. Retrieved 26 May 2013.
  9. ↑ Chang, Justin (26 May 2013). "Cannes: 'Blue Is the Warmest Color' Wins Palme d' Or". Variety. Retrieved 26 May 2013.
  10. ↑ "Toronto film festival 2013: the full line-up". The Guardian. 23 July 2013. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  11. 1 2 "Golden Globes Nominations: The Full List". Variety. 11 January 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
  12. ↑ Child, Ben (24 August 2012). "Bérénice too … Bejo to replace Marion Cotillard in new Asghar Farhadi film". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  13. ↑ "نام فیلم جدید اصغر فرهادی مشخص شد + اولین عکس". 21 December 2012. Retrieved 12 September 2021.
  14. ↑ "Le passé (The Past) (2013)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  15. ↑ "The Past Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 29 April 2014.
  16. ↑ Schrumpf, Birgit (30 January 2014). "Le Passé – Das Vergangene (The Past, Le passé)". KinoCritics.com. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
  17. ↑ "Awards – 66th Festival de Cannes Awards". The Daily (blog of the Cannes Film Festival). 26 May 2013. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
  18. ↑ Richford, Rhonda. "Berenice Bejo, Lea Seydoux, Roman Polanski Among France's Cesar Awards Nominees". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  19. ↑ "Award-winner announced at Durban International Film Festival". Durban International Film Festival.
  20. ↑ Walsh, Jason (15 January 2014). "Sound Editors Announce 2013 Golden Reel Nominees". Variety. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
  21. ↑ "Complete list of 2014 Golden Reel award winners". Los Angeles Times. 16 February 2014. Archived from the original on 26 February 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
  22. ↑ "National Board Of Review Names Spike Jonze's 'Her' Best Film". Deadline Hollywood. 4 December 2013. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
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