Director Asghar Farhadi is the pride of Iran, who brought the country as many as two Oscars. He is one of only six non-American directors in history to win this award twice, along with such figures as Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman or Akira Kurosawa. But now it’s like he’s in his own movie – and his brilliant career is in jeopardy.
His latest film, Hero (2021), won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated by Iran for the Oscars. But the film didn’t even make the shortlist in the end and caused Farhadi a lot of trouble – which hasn’t ended yet.
The film “Hero” tells about a man who went to prison for debts. He is released for two days to try to settle the issue with the creditor. And at the same time, his girlfriend discovers a lost purse with gold coins. Alas, they are not enough to pay the debt. The main character decides to return the loss to its owner and becomes the hero of social networks. But is he so disinterested and honest? His brilliant reputation is being destroyed before our eyes.
Asghar Farhadi himself found himself in a similar story. Eight years ago, a very famous director gave his students a task at a documentary film seminar to make a story about a lost and found thing. He handed out a list of such cases. But student Azadeh Masihzade found her own story in the newspapers of her hometown and filmed the documentary All Winners, All Losers (2018). After seeing the Hero, she publicly accused Farhadi of stealing the idea and filed a lawsuit.