Back in Iran after the unsuccessful Spanish interlude, Asghar Farhadi finds the inspiration of his best days with «Ghahreman» (A hero), the fifteenth film of this competition monster. The two-day permit that releases Rahim (Amir Jadidi) from prison, where he ended up in debt, seems to allow him to solve at least part of his problems: the woman he loves in secret brings him a bag with gold coins which would allow him to pay half of his debt and thus request the remission of the complaint and the end of the prison. But what seemed like a gift at one point turns into a fortuitous find that Rahim decides to return to those who prove to have lost the bag. A champion of altruism? Or a clever self-promotional operation? Farhadi, as always, does not want to give answers but to delve into human behavior and thus extends his focus to television (which makes Rahim a popular hero), to prison leaders (who want to use it to make people forget the suicides that took place within their walls. ), to the world of social media (which assumes all kinds of backstories), to the guardians of public morality (who doubt everything) to charitable associations, which are hoping for a bit of publicity.
Broadening the field of action, passing from the private to the public to the “political”, the film knows how to return that “idle turn” of the facts that the media and social networks dispossess of their real roots to transform into something elusive and yet looming, which cannot be ignored. With his gray air, of one who always feels crushed by facts, Rahim is the champion of an Iran that tries to survive, ready for any compromise, capable of reacting only in the face of the intransigent behavior of its debtor and to defend the dignity of the stuttering son. And it is perhaps he, little Siavash, the true “hero” of the film, silent witness to a world where adults seem to be guided only by selfishness and things end up always dragging along the same way.
July 14, 2021 (change July 14, 2021 | 07:27)
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED