Separation(2020)
On the final night of a heated divorce, a husband and wife acquire a strange new disease.
On the final night of a heated divorce, a husband and wife acquire a strange new disease.
An intimate drama in which the boundaries between subjective and objective realities intertwine. A mother spends a day at the pool with her daughter. After the child slips briefly out of sight, the the tranquil, blue water transforms into a whirlpool of fear.
Separation opens with an absolutely innocent shot of a young girl riding a bicycle. It isn’t until later in the film that we learn exactly what we were watching. And that is exactly what Separation is all about. This is a film that masterfully uses sleight of hand like a highly-skilled magician to show us one thing while setting up something completely different. And writer/director Greg White brings it all together in a tense film with an exciting climax that pulls back all the curtains.
When Sarah, a New York actress, calls Joe, a London playwright they begin a very special relationship conducted through trans-Antlantic phone calls. And both Sarah and Joe have very special conditions they both have to fight to overcome their separation.
Separation concerns the inner life of a woman during a period of breakdown – marital, and possibly mental. Her past and (possible?) future are revealed through a fragmented but brilliantly achieved and often humorous narrative, in which dreams and desires are as real as the ‘swinging’ London (complete with Procul Harum music and Mark Boyle light show) of the film’s setting.