Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/240181
34 maltatoday, SUNDAY, 12 JANUARY 2014 THIS WEEK FILM IN CINEMAS TODAY ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ELATION ★ ★ ★ ★ VALIDATION ★ ★ ★ FLIRTATION ★ ★ FRUSTRATION ★ SEPARATION Leila Hatami and Peyman Moaadi in the Oscarwinning Iranian drama A Separation St James Cavalier Valletta Tel. 21 223200 A Separation (12) 15:00 Parkland (12) 18:45 Embassy Cinemas Valletta Tel. 21 227436, 21 245818 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug (12) 10:15, 14:00, 17:20, 20:45 47 Ronin (12) 13:30, 16:05, 18:40, 21:15 Walking with Dinosaurs (U) 10:15, 13:20, 15:50 Mandela – Long Walk to Freedom 17:45, 20:45 The Last Vegas (12) 10:20, 13:45, 16:10, 18:35, 21:00 Hunger Games: Catching Fire (12) 10:00, 15:10, 18:00, 20:50 Frozen (U) 10:15, 13:45, 16:15, 18:40 Saving Mr Banks (U) 20:50 Eden Cinemas St Julian's Tel. 23 710400 The Railway Man (15) 14:00, 16:25, 18:50, 21:15, 23:40 Frozen (3D) (U) 14:00, 16:20, 18:40, 20:55, 23:10 Escape Plan (15) 14:05, 16:25, 18:45, 21:10, 23:35 The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty (PG) 14:00, 16:25, 18:45, 21:05, 23:30 Homefront (15) 14:00, 16:15, 18:30, 21:10, 23:30 The Hobbit : The Desolation of Smaug (3D) (12) 14:30, 18:00, 21:15 Captain Phillips (12) 14:05, 18:05, 20:55, 23:35 Walking With Dinosaurs (U) 14:15, 16:20, 18:30 The Counsellor (18) 21:10, 23:35 Silhouette (PG) 14:30, 18:10, 21:00, 23:35 47 Ronin (3D) (12) 14:30, 18:20, 21:05, 23:40 The Hobbit : The Desolation of Smaug (12) 16:00, 20:00, 23:20 Philomena (12) 14:15, 16:20, 18:30, 21:00, 23:15 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (12) 14:15, 17:45, 20:45, 23:40 Insidious: Chapter 2 (15) 14:00, 16:15, 18:35, 20:50, 23:20 Last Vegas (12) 14:05, 16:25, 18:50, 21:15, 23:40 Mandela – Long Walk to Freedom (12) 14:30, 18:00, 20:50, 23:50 Empire Cinemas Bugibba Tel. 21 581787, 21 581909 47 Ronin (3D) (12) 10:30, 13:30, 16:00, 18:30, 21:00 Last Vegas (12) 10:40, 13:35, 15:50, 18:05, 20:50 Homefront (15) 10:45, 13:45, 16:05, 18:15, 20:55 The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (12A) 10:30, 14:30, 18:00, 21:15 Mandela – Long Walk To Freedom (12) 10:50, 13:45, 17:45, 21:05 The Secret life of Walter Mitty (PG) 10:35, 13:40, 16:05, 18:30, 20:55 Frozen (U) 10:35, 13:35, 16:00, 18:20, 20:50 The personal is political SECRETS and lies are often the motor behind a great story. In Iranian director Asghar Farhadi's A Separation, this reliable truism spirals into a heady display of domestic drama and social/religious commentary. And by the time the two-hour film runs its intimate – though narratively and emotionally dizzying – course, it's unlikely that you'll question its Best Foreign Film accolade at the Academy Awards back in 2011. As something of an out-of-theblue treat, A Separation is currently showing at St James Cavalier, Valletta. But the fact that Farhadi has released two other critically-acclaimed films (About Elly, The Past) since A Separation was released to international audiences a couple of years ago only puts into perspective how lacking Malta's film distribution and screening initiatives are when it comes to non-mainstream, non-Hollywood films. With the Malta International Film Festival having taken place exclusively at the Cavalier just last month, however, it may be that the authorities are finally realising that Valletta's Centre for Creativity needs to be cultivated as a space for worthy cinema from across the globe, even if it may not be obvious, instant box office fodder. Here's hoping that the coming year will make good on this, with a more regularly implemented schedule of international films making their way to the Cavalier's programme. But let's move on to the film in question because it remains an impressive one indeed, even if we're getting it two years too late. Like a lot of quietly confident films, A Separation starts off with a relatively simple premise. The couple at the centre of the story are asking for a divorce. The reason: the wife, By Teodor Reljic Simin (Leila Hatami) wants to leave the country in order to secure a better future for their daughter, Termeh (Sarina Farhadi) but the husband, Nader (Peyman Moadi) is bound to Iran due to his father (Ali-Asghar Shahbazi), who is suffering from Alzheimer's and needs constant attention. Confident that his wife will eventually return home, Nader hires help from a lower-class Muslim woman, Razieh (Sareh Bayat). But after an incident takes place whose origins and motives are shrouded in frustrating mystery from the beginning, the drama of the already tense household threatens to destroy the two families – who are made to face the often arbitrary, and always inflexible, law of the state. What resonates most from this highly worthy drama is the humanity that seeps out of its every frame. Yes, the entire thing is pitched like something of a latter-day Kafkaesque parable, with courtrooms that are literally rooms – crammed and cluttered with endless reams of paperwork – rapidly becoming a hotbed of frustration and thwarted hope. But if Farhadi is inspired by Kafka, he takes on board the tortured Czech writer's notes of pity and helpless- ness too. Like Kafka's hapless – and often doomed – protagonists, Farhadi's characters are made to wrestle at every turn. The threat of poverty is sometimes foregrounded – though Nader's family is ostensibly middle class, this is shown up to be a slippery social marker – though it's often left to hover in the background. I'm jumping to an entirely different genre somewhat acrobatically here, but Alfonso Cuaron – latterly of Gravity fame – employed a similar tactic in his science fictional dystopia, Children of Men. As has been pointed out by Slavoj Zizek, that film's dystopian underpinnings come across all the better for being left in the background. Similarly, in A Separation, Farhadi's camera insists on panning and wobbling only according to the character's movements. And this is how its most powerful move is put into force – the unreliability of the character's memories and accounts and their tension to speak the truth when it most desperately needs to be spoken comes across vividly because never once are we regaled with an overarching 'master' shot. In this world of individuals battling monolithic institutions – be they bureaucratic or religious – an objectivising perspective would have been the ultimate betrayal to the characters' chafing humanity. Luckily, Farhadi doesn't give in to such a cop-out, resulting in a film that at turns maddening and sad, but always dignified. A look into a culture under duress, with a specific focus but a universal emotional reach. The Academy definitely got it right, back in 2011. A Separation will be showing at St James Cavalier Cinema until January 26. For a full programme log on to sjcav.org R AT IO N A S E PA ) (12 ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ This week's picks COMEDY THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY Ben Stiller directs and stars in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, James Thurber's classic story of a daydreamer who escapes his anonymous life by disappearing into a world of fantasies filled with heroism, romance and action. When his job along with that of his co-worker (Kristen Wiig) are threatened, Walter takes action in the real world embarking on a global journey that turns into an adventure more extraordinary than anything he could have ever imagined. DRAMA PHILOMENA Based on the 2009 investigative book by BBC correspondent Martin Sixsmith, The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, Philomena focuses on the efforts of Philomena Lee (Dench), mother to a boy conceived out of wedlock – something her Irish-Catholic community didn't have the highest opinion of – and given away for adoption in the United States. BIOPIC MANDELA – LONG WALK TO FREEDOM Mandela – Long Walk to Freedom is based on South African President Nelson Mandela's autobiography of the same name, which chronicles his early life, coming of age, education and 27 years in prison before becoming President and working to rebuild the country's once segregated society. Idris Elba (PROMETHEUS) stars as Nelson Mandela, Naomie Harris (Skyfall) stars as Winnie Mandela, with Justin Chadwick (The Other Boleyn Girl) directing.