Photo: Amazon Studios
Amir Jadidi in A Hero
Amir Jadidi in 'A Hero'
Debt is a problem for millions of Americans, but in Iran, debt can compound into prison time. In A Hero, by Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi (A Separation, The Salesman), Rahim is a mild-mannered fellow whose winning smile fails to cancel his bills. He’s given a two-day pass from prison and uses that brief reprieve to figure out his next steps.
Everyone seems to like Rahim—the guys on the construction site, his brother-in-law, the cabbie—except for the uncompromising man who holds his note, Bahram. Given the Dickensian sensibility of debtors’ prisons, it’s easy at first to peg Bahram as an Iranian Ebenezer Scrooge. However, little by little doubt gathers around Rahim and sympathy accrues to Bahram. The lender is a small business owner whose loan was costly and the borrower begins to seem like a ne’er-do-well.
But A Hero has no heroes or villains, just people making decisions from a limited set of options. At first Rahim resists but then accepts his girlfriend’s scheme: She’ll “lose” a bag of gold coins, he’ll “find” it and make a show for the prison authorities of returning the coins to their owner. Maybe the warden will smile favorably on such good behavior?
Things get out of hand when the warden, perhaps seeking to distract attention from problems at his facility, calls the press. Rahim and his family go on television, the sort of “positive programming” and local boosterism familiar to American TV audiences. A charity group picks up the story and organizes a fundraising benefit for Rahim, presenting him with an award and praising him as a role model. Their verbiage is reminiscent of nonprofit organizations in the U.S. Then: social media rumors (in Iran, too!) trigger an official investigation as Rahim’s web of lies grows denser in the coverup—and more untenable.
Like most filmmakers from Iran, Farhadi stages a believable story in real settings amidst the grit and endeavor of the country’s everyday life. No one goes hungry but no one is affluent. The city is draped in smog from the incessant traffic, the streets are clogged with Nissans and Mazdas and the neighborhoods are run-down (but no worse than many zip codes in the U.S.). Religion is never mentioned by name and politics are avoided. The cast (led by Amir Jadidi as Rahim) are extraordinarily natural in their roles.
Farhadi frames many of his scenes with care. When Rahim wants to discuss something privately with his sister and brother-in-law, the kitchen door filling the screen closes. We never learn what he says.
A Hero is screening at the Downer Theatre.
