The opening shot of Iranian drama A Separation finds bank teller Nader (Peyman Moaadi) and university lecturer Simin (Leila Hatami) in a drab government office, filing for the titular divorce. In an unbroken take, the audience sits in place of the unseen judge who will decide their fate, setting the stage for the unflinching scrutiny of its characters that will unfold in the film's two hour running time.

Writer-director Asghar Farhadi's fifth film, and winner of the Berlin Film Festival's coveted Golden Bear, combines beautifully-observed everyday interactions with the high stakes of a suspense thriller. The fallout of Simin and Nader's attempt to divorce leads the couple to cross paths with an unemployed shoemaker and his timid wife. When a tragic accident (or was it?) entangles their lives even further, the film veers off in unexpectedly heart-racing directions.

In a year dominated by visual stylists like Nicolas Winding Refn and Terrence Mallick, Farhadi's stripped-back direction feels refreshingly understated. There's also a noticeable lack of music in the film; instead the chatter of crowded government hallways and Tehran's thrumming streets provide the soundtrack.

The cast are faultless across the board, with the two central couples imbuing their roles with such ambiguity that no true heroes or villains ever emerge. While the character of Nader defies the cliché of the uncaring, conservative husband, the script is also eager to point out the hypocrisies present in liberal, middle class Iranians of his ilk. At its heart, A Separation is a story of men whose sense of moral certainty is such that they will do almost anything to find vindication. Farhadi doesn't linger over this inherent paradox but we see that in a society still clinging to some semblance of patriarchy, self-doubt is a privilege left only to the women.

The title, A Separation, begins as an oblique reference to a marital split but quickly encompasses much more than that: the division of social classes, the gulf between moral justice and the law, the irreconcilability of two versions of the same event. The adulation the film has received is well-deserved and, having already won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, it seems poised to snatch the Oscar too. But whatever happens on February 26th, A Separation is undoubtedly among the best small films of the year, no matter the language.