The Art of Film Subtitling

The 2012 Golden Globe award winner for best foreign language film, "Nader and Simin: A Separation" by Asghar Farhadi was not only outstanding in its universal way of examining the human condition, but also superior in the quality of its subtitling.

Having witnessed Persian into English translations in the form of subtitles at international film festivals in London in the 1990s with such examples as the word 'tomorrow' spelt with two 'm' letters to what we are witnessing today, focusing on the transfer of meaning in its most natural form, I was delighted to see the organic interactions on the big screen translated in the form of meaningful subtitles for English-speaking audiences.

With an innate keen eye on grammar and punctuation, I couldn't help but notice that in the scene where everyone is playing table football, the word 'davar' -which given the context is 'referee'- was translated as 'manager'. However, if that was the only thing that "went wrong", the quality of the subtitles are still superior to previous examples of Iranian films that have made it into the international arena.   

Here's to the art of good subtitling!