The Past

Le Passé (The Past) premiered in 2013 at Cannes, scooping up various accolades including Best Actress for Berenice Bejo.

After the acclaim of A Seperation writer/director Asghar Farhadi’s   Le Passé  (The Past) explores a desperate entanglement of relationships set against grey suburban Paris – a vista that matches the emotional enclosure in which the protagonists find themselves. At the centre are Samir (Tahar Rahim) and his lover Marie (Berenice Bejo). Their romance is far from simple: Marie is faced with signing her estranged husband’s divorce papers, while Samir’s wife is comatose in hospital after an attempted suicide. 

Already nominated for an Oscar for her jocular performance in 2011’s The Artist , Bejo brings a flair to the hard-bitten and steely mother in Le Passé . Tahar Rahim, who plays opposite her, has an equally impressive portfolio: his visceral performance in 2009’s Un Prophète won him a Best Actor at France’s César’s, which we expect shall have pre-empted a host of nominations for his embattled, though infatuated, Samir.

Asghar Farhadi wrote Le Passé’s screenplay while touring with A Seperation , his critically acclaimed 2011 film, and has said ‘although they are independent of one another they’re borne of the same family’. Echoes of A Separation’s frank exploration of the dilemmas of modern marriage and parenthood abound in Le Passe in the manner so praised by critics.