Film Review: "A Hero" (قهرمان‎) (2021).

From the director of A Separation (جدایی نادر از سیمین) comes A Hero (قهرمان). This Iranian film written and directed by Asghar Farhadi. Rahim is in prison because of a debt he was unable to repay. During a two-day leave, he tries to convince his creditor to withdraw his complaint against the payment of part of the sum. But things don't go as planned.

The film was inspired by the true story of Mohammad Reza Shokri, a man who returned a bag of cash he found while on a leave from a debtors' prison in Shiraz. This inspired the documentary, All Winners, All Losers, by Azadeh Masihzadeh. Masihzadeh attended a workshop taught by Farhadi on documentary filmmaking at the Karnameh Institute in Tehran. In the course, Farhadi assigned his students to research and film a documentary about people who had found and returned valuable objects to their original owners. According to Masihzadeh, while most students in the class took subjects from a list of excerpts from news media Farhadi provided them with, she found Shokri's story herself in local media in her hometown of Shiraz as the subjects Farhadi named were already taken by other students. In 2018, All Winners, All Losers was screened at the Shiraz Arts Festival. In August 2019, before filming A Hero, Farhadi asked Masihzadeh to sign a document stating that the idea for All Winners, All Losers belonged to Farhadi. Masihzadeh obliged, which she has since said she did under pressure. A lawyer for Memento Films later pointed out that the document had no legal value. In October 2021, after seeing A Hero and finding it strikingly similar to her documentary, Masihzadeh filed a complaint to House of Cinema's Iranian Alliance of Motion Picture Guilds. which then ruled in Farhadi's favour. Farhadi denied the allegation of plagiarism and sued Masihzadeh for defamation, and then Masihzadeh sued Farhadi for copyright infringement. Masihzadeh claimed that she discovered the story herself and that it had not been reported in national media at the time, while Farhadi's lawyer argued that the story had already been reported in media, providing links to two news articles from 2012. The manager of the workshop has told media that she shares Masihzadeh's recollection. A fellow student who attended the workshop also testified in support of Masihzadeh in court, while some other students have signed a statement in support of Farhadi denying the allegation. In March 2022, a judicial investigator allowed Masihzadeh to proceed with her legal action against Farhadi, but rejected her claim to revenue earned by Farhadi. In early April 2022, a court acquitted Masihzadeh of defamation charges for "insufficient evidence", which Farhadi could appeal. The same day, it was reported that a judge found evidence Farhadi violated Masihzadeh's copyright.

Farhadi's strength lies in his ability to cast adept performers able to convey the subtle complexities of his prose, and what the cast achieve here is exciting as it is troubling.

Deeply philosophical with human entanglements, culture, tradition, class and morality, the film is a complex drama with a great narrative pull that is a richly rewarding experience.

Simon says A Hero (قهرمان) receives:

Also, see my review for Everybody Knows (Todos lo Saben).