Ghahreman (A Hero): Iranian society as seen by Asghar Farhadi

Picture from the movie Ghahreman (A Hero) © Amir Hossein Shojaei

 

Everybody Knows (Todos lo saben), which opened the 71st edition of the Festival de Cannes, was set in Spain. With Ghahreman (A Hero), Asghar Farhadi has allowed himself a remarkable return to Iran. Following The Past (Le Passé, 2013),which won the Best Actress award for  Bérénice Bejo, The Salesman (Forushande, 2016), which won Best Screenplay and Best Actor, and Everybody Knows starring Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem and Ricardo Darín, this is the fourth film In Competition for the Writer-Director, and marks his return to the psychological thriller.

Asghar Farhadi created three leading roles for his previous film. In Ghahreman, the "hero" is Rahim (Amir Jadidi), in prison because of an unpaid debt. While he is on leave, the woman he loves, who believes in him, convinces him to try to pay it off with a bag loaded with money that she found. His decision has repercussions which transform the protagonist into a hero.

As he weaves his social drama, the creator of A Separation (2010) exposes an excessively complicated administrative system where people can become impossibly entangled in its tortuous demands for evidence. In this highly codified. controlling society, one detail is enough to transform a hero into a pariah – and vice-versa.

The Iranian filmmaker unfolds this realistic reflection around the cracks in Iranian society, filling the film with deliberations because the fact is, here, everything must be negotiated.

As he does in all his films, Asgar Farhadi takes his character right to the limit: a young man full of hope who always thinks that everything will turn out all right, who discovers from experience the pitfalls of media attention.

In A Hero, the director has again cast his daughter, Sarina Farhadi (Nazanin), who he also worked with in A Separation. The film was shot in Shiraz, the ancient capital of Persia in the south of Iran, and one of the country's cultural and artistic capitals.