There was just one film at the Middleburg Film Festival that I saw which I didn’t have time to review. That was Asghar Farhadi’s Cannes prize-winner, A Hero. That shouldn’t be taken as a slight on this tremendous moral drama, but on me for being a poor manager of time. Fortunately, the film doesn’t arrive until January when it’s surely to be in the awards season mix, as Farhadi’s films always deserve to be.
Going back to his native Iran after journeying to Spain for 2018’s Everybody Knows, Farhadi presents a complicated film about an ex-con whose attempts to do the right thing bring him nothing but trouble. While in America this would probably amount to, oh, maybe a few miscommunications and perhaps a misunderstanding with the law, one has to factor a strict Iranian culture into the mix. Suffice it to say, Farhadi does not take this story where it would go if produced in Hollywood.
Starring Amir Jadidi, Mohsen Tanabendeh, Fereshteh Sadr Orafaie, and Sahar Goldoost. Maryam Shahdei, Alireza Jahandideh, and Sarina Farhadi, A Hero opens January 7th 2022 on Amazon Prime Video.
Rahim is in prison because of a debt he was unable to repay. During a two-day leave, he tries to convince his creditor to withdraw his complaint against the payment of part of the sum. But things don’t go as planned…
