| Iran, 2021 | Drama | Author Work | Trailer |
The director of this movie is Asghar Farhadi, which is a name I have frequently read each time I inform myself about the newest intellectual gossip from the cinema of the Iranosphere. Even during the promotion campaign of the wonderful There is no Evil that was released last year, the cinéphiles of the West couldn’t but compare it with works from the best Farhadi. Therefore, I understood that I would never have a complete scope upon the newest Iranian moviemaking without having savoured anything of this man.
Usually, what gets me from the former Second World’s countries’ cinema -and from the Iranosphere in particular- is that I can get to see and understand particularities from these cultures I find exotic, unknown and attractive, but also near to me. However, this time’s A Hero tells a story that is more universal than anything, even if including small jabs to Iranian government system and society in some moments. The main character is a prisoner who does a good deed with heart in one of his permission days, and it echoes as big news. Soon, doubts and rumours about him, his motivations and possible hidden schemes behind his deed spread, and what originally was something made to calm his consciousness becomes a big snowball rolling down the slope, where good moral is tainted with bad moral; and we get a scope on the sad reality that life is unfair, overly complicated, and society is rotten in many different levels.
The plot is something in between a human drama and a domestic thriller, where multiple layers of moral judgements can be deduced. What I really liked about A Hero was its non-manichaean way of portraying characters. However, this very modern act of portrayal has an added new twist in this story. Instead of showing morally gray, neutral or directly amoral characters, what we are shown are “tainted” personalities. A mainly good-hearted character is shown to have a small darker side that can awake during certain circumstances, and even a rotten person has their moments of light and purity. While there can be a main “soul”, even external circumstances can mislead the way of somebody, or correcting them on the other hand. I guess that this is the true meaning of “temptation”, “sin”, or “moments of insight”.
It is also shown how modern society is conditioned to magnify things so the elements in charge and power can take advantage of it, as in literal profits or as smokescreens to cover other worse events happening. Furthermore, the mutability and “virality” of how things are seen when they happen, and how they change under the public scope when they develop, much as in a quantic influence of an experiment. In fact, reading an interview to Farhadi in person he mentioned that the story of this work was obviously inspired by pieces of news that he read every day, and how the snowball and virality effect suggested him a way to show how modernity works.
I really think that A Hero is a good movie, and I can understand why Farhadi is well-considered. But, I still prefer other works from Iranian cinema, that show the particularities of their culture more. At least, this movie shows how people in Shiraz live, their clothing, their houses, and even the Tomb of Xerxes, so at least I could be a bit satiated in this way, too.