Sa new movie is only a few minutes old when it suddenly ceases to be an Asghar Farhadi movie. He has just carefully presented his exposition and, with the release of a prisoner, has set the mood for his typical detective research in Iranian everyday life. But now he is going to a location that demands a completely different staging gesture than one would expect from this director: His seventh film boasts show value – and for a moment an epic breath runs through it.
Right after the start, he unfolds in a long shot the majestic panorama of the Naqsh-e-Rostam archaeological site in southern Iran, where four royal tombs lie, including that of Xerxes. The towering monumentality of the rock massif is appropriate to the mythical rank of the heroes of Persian history. She sets a bar of heroism that seems unattainable. Farhadi’s protagonist can of course scale the real place without any effort.
The prisoner Rahim, who is on leave, wants to speak to his brother-in-law, who works on the scaffolding, and want to borrow his car. The film immediately finds its way back to human proportions and the camera creates a familiar closeness to the characters. The film soon abandons the imposing scenery, which it never tries to reconcile with the other locations in the film, but which continues to act as a resonant space.
The mythical has never been part of the cinema of this meticulous realist, but this time he risks a look. A fairytale treasure will even play a role in “A Hero”. After two detours into the realms of European auteur cinema, Farhadi reorients himself. This time he didn’t shoot in Tehran, but in Shiraz, the city of poets, orange groves and carpets.
He explores the southern Iranian metropolis as a terrain of modern everyday life, in which, just like in the capital, an inventory of moral and social ambivalences can be made. When he initially makes a detour to the famous dig site, it has both topographical and metaphorical cogency: the director acts as an archaeologist, uncovering layer after layer to fathom what happened immediately before.
Pending morale
Like his previous films, such as “Nader und Simin – Eine Tennung” and “The Salesman”, “A Hero” is also constructed around a blank space. He does not show the central event that sparks all further conflicts. Strictly speaking, it is not an incident at all, but a moment of decision. Farhadi places him in a narrative intimate sphere, which initially seems respectful, but with this director it reliably turns into strategy. He shoots thrillers whose moral outcome remains in the balance until the end.
Rahim Soltani, who is serving a three-year sentence because of a large debt, wants to use the release to appease his creditor. It so happens that his girlfriend found a purse full of gold coins shortly before. However, the price of gold has fallen and the treasure is worth considerably less than hoped.
Rahim decides to give the purse back to the owner. But instead of handing in the find to the police, he looks for the stranger using a notice on which he gives the phone number of the prison. When the management found out about his virtuous actions, they informed the media. The honest finder is celebrated everywhere as a hero; a charity supports him. However, doubts about his story soon increase. The bag’s owner has disappeared without a trace, and Rahim becomes increasingly embroiled in lies to restore his reputation.
How sincere Rahim’s hindsight is is now under scrutiny. The audience remains unredeemed because they are not initiated into the inner truth. This outside perspective is also fruitful in its persistence as Farhadi portrays a society where public standing and reputation are the most valuable currency in circulation. The associations that the German title of Heinrich Böll’s “Katharina Blum” evokes are not misleading. Rahim gets caught up in the wheels of a media machine that isn’t interested in truth, but in effect. Social media is tightening the screw of doom even more hastily, more relentlessly.
While Rahim’s life is mercilessly scrutinized, the other actors also reveal a second face. The Iranian penal system initially appears humane; in a subplot, however, Farhadi later addresses the death penalty. The benevolence of the prison authorities and the favor of the charity prove to be balancing self-interest. Only the solidarity of Rahim’s family and girlfriend does not waver, nor does the hatred of his creditor.
In this world, no one has reason to trust themselves. Farhadi explores them with the persistence of a hand-held camera, which focuses on the unpredictability of reality in plan sequences that react sensitively. This narrator is too conscientious to be a stylist. Rather, he accompanies his protagonist through the purgatory of present-day Iran with affectionate vigilance.
Asghar Farhadi’s cinema revolves around the problem of judgement. But it’s always up to the audience to decide. Farhadi agrees with Brecht’s Galileo: “Unfortunate is the country that needs heroes.” This tragedy doesn’t need anyone. Rahim is not a hero in action anyway, but an opportunist in the sense of seizing the opportunity.
However, it would be wrong to read the film’s title as sheer irony. Farhadi is a patient and also meticulous humanist. He expects more from his protagonist. In the last twist of the meticulously constructed screenplay, Rahim proves that he very well knows the difference between good reputation and honor.