A Hero

Reading what others have to say about Asghar Farhadi's A Hero, I was really struck by how differently everyone interpreted events and saw every character. He seems to be a filmmaker who explores the grey areas that our interactive existence spends a lot of it's time in, with motives, moods, meaning, thought and actions open to a great deal of interpretation. From the film's very start, I personally felt an enormous amount of empathy for main character Rahim (played by Amir Jadidi in a real international breakthrough role for him.) It was very simply his kind smile that did it for me - there was something about it that made me feel like this was a man I could trust, as he seemed so humble and polite when dealing with other people. Later on, this will contrast a great deal with the taciturn frown of Bahram (Mohsen Tanabandeh) who will end up being the one person willing to destroy much of the good will and esteem Rahim wins by doing a good deed, and acting in good faith. It's a downfall that's hard to watch, but impossible to turn away from.

Events that are revealed in piecemeal fashion, and that we have to interpret for ourselves, have already occurred when A Hero starts. Rahim, who has kids with an ex-wife, is in prison due to an unpaid debt owing to his brother-in-law Bahram - but his new lover has stumbled upon a lost purse with gold coins inside. While out on a two-day leave he joins her and the two try to value the coins and contact Bahram to pay part of the debt, hoping that this and regular payments to him will prove enough to have him forgive Rahim and allow him his permanent freedom. Bahram angrily refuses, not trusting Rahim, and this is enough to prompt the latter to try and find the owner of the purse to return it - obviously it wasn't meant to be, and if it had of been a gift from God, it would have led to his being free. When the apparent purse's owner contacts Rahim in prison, the authorities learn about this good deed, and that in turns leads to Rahim becoming a minor celebrity - feted on television for what he's done, for which he not only receives a certificate from a charitable establishment, but a donation paying part of his debt. Bahram however, is not convinced that Rahim hasn't invented the story for his own benefit - and sets on a course that will destroy his reputation and ruin his redemption.

The first time I watched A Hero I didn't fully appreciate the last few scenes as much as I should have, even though I'd already given the film the highest possible rating I could. There's something there that Rahim learns about truly being a hero, and that's something that left me feeling a lot more positive about where this film finishes in it's narrative and emotional senses. If you're really tuned in to his body language and expression, you can also see that the pain he's been in for much of the latter half of the film has lifted as well, because he fully understands the lesson he's learned, and it's import. Despite what he's gone through (a similar spiritual journey to Antonio Ricci in Bicycle Thieves) he's actually content, though there's still that element of sadness considering he must still remain imprisoned and separated from his children, family and lover. How often do we see people considered heroes, and ponder to ourselves what truly makes one a hero? Many of the times I do, I consider that most of the greatest heroes out there are invisible, doing good but not expecting rewards, attention or congratulation. Many make concerted efforts to avoid attention, and many a great hero will do what they do at great personal cost to themselves.

It's no surprise anymore to learn that Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi makes great cinematic treasures. He won 9 various international film awards (not counting those the film won for itself) for A Hero, and the film found itself on the shortlist for foreign language features to be nominated for an Oscar, falling at the last hurdle. His 2011 masterpiece, A Separation, ended up winning a Best Foreign Film Oscar, and Farhadi was nominated personally for Best Screenplay. I also love The Salesman and Everybody Knows, both of which (along with A Hero) were nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes. His award-winning editor, Hayedeh Safiyari, whom he has made all of his best films with, did great work on this and deserves recognition. Cinematographers Ali Ghazi and Arash Ramezani, relative newcomers to the industry and Farhadi, did good work on A Hero. My love for the film however, is due to the acting ability of Amir Jadidi, Mohsen Tanabandeh and a great child performance from Saleh Karimaei as Rahim's stammering son - along with Farhadi's amazing imagination and direction.

I love the way A Hero only reveals what's important, and leaves the rest a tantalizing mystery. We know Rahim borrowed from a loan shark to start some kind of business, and that his brother-in-law ended up footing the bill - but we don't know exactly what happened. We don't know how foolhardy Rahim's actions were, although it's never a good idea to borrow in that way when there's risk involved - and it seems that the business venture failed, and Rahim's partner fled. We don't know why Bahram is so distrustful of Rahim, to the point of exasperation and constant suspicion - telling anyone who'll listen that Rahim has constantly let him down, and failed any and all obligation he's had to his brother-in-law in the past. Rahim doesn't seem sneaky, but he does seem somewhat naïve, trusting and a little weak-willed and faint-hearted. What fractured his marriage? It seems his wife might have left him, for Bahram suspects that he's trying to win her over again despite that obviously not being true. They're on very friendly terms, so it would be interesting to know what split them up in a society that frowns on divorce.

Another interesting aspect to the film is the way it shows how some people are good at navigating our modern world and some aren't as adept. Bahram and his daughter weaponize their phones by recording the fight he gets into with Rahim, and exploits the online world by releasing it at an inopportune moment. Rahim had done the opposite - he'd done nothing to record the details of the woman who came and collected the coins - probably under false pretenses. The situation always seems to be turning against him, but he's a victim of not having much forethought and sense about him. He's not media savvy, and is subject to the whims and fickle opinion of people who would manipulate his image - first in a grossly positive way, and then in a darkly negative one. When he agrees to appear on television after "returning" those coins, my first though is always "I sure wouldn't do that." His praising of the prison authorities, done with good intentions, set his fellow inmates against him - and the parts of his story he makes up to keep the fact he has a lover quiet end up making him seem quite dishonest.

A Hero held me in a tight grip the first time I saw it, and I was expecting it to feel a little less immediate the second time around, but to my surprise I was just as shaken and emotionally involved with the story and characters. Rahim's son struggling to communicate, his connection with his girlfriend, his puppy dog eyes and willingness to please and the way he seems to be so sensitive really touches me, especially considering that this is someone in prison. The way he gets swept up in the congratulations he receives for doing a good deed, and the way he gets broken down and deflated after being put on a pedestal really rock me when I see it onscreen. He really shouldn't have just accepted the accolades and media attention, and tried to reason with himself about what a real hero is, and how they behave, but the fact that he learns really squared this film up and made it satisfying to me. It's a recent watch that I immediately fell in love with, and it's been fascinating to discover that every other person that sees it sees something completely unique and different in the same characters. That's Asghar Farhadi for you - giving us much to interpret in our own way, and many different ways to read his films. This goes down as one of my absolute favourites from 2021.