A Hero: Farhadi Rediscovers the Suffocating Intensity of A Separation [critique]

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The Iranian filmmaker signs one of those social suspense films of which he has the secret. A lesson in writing so mastered that it nevertheless stifles the emotion.

Arte rebroadcasts A heroat 8:55 p.m., and the film is also visible for free in replay on the channel's website. Première recommends it to you.

After a passage through Spain (Everybody knows which opened Cannes in 2018), Asghar Farhadi returned in 2021 to his birthplace and favorite land, Iran, and in the register that made him king with A separation, this mixture of suspense and social chronicle where lies and manipulation reign supreme. All starting, as always, from a hyper basic situation that will gradually devour its main character like metastases invading a body that is less and less resistant.

This one is called Rahim (brilliantly played by Amir Jadidi, a candidate for the acting award). Thrown in prison because of a debt he could not honor, he wants to take advantage of two days of leave to convince his creditor to withdraw his complaint against the payment of part of the sum. But nothing seems to work until his partner offers to pay him back… with the gold coins from a bag she found in the street. Escape by a theft that does not say its name, like a lie by omission? The moral dilemma, always the driving force of Farhadi's story, can then unfold. And if Rahim ends up quite quickly choosing to return this bag while trying to find its owner, he does not suspect that he has just put his finger in an infernal machine that will crush him. Because if by his altruistic gesture, he becomes a hero whose light everyone wants to enjoy, rumors will quickly cast doubt on his good faith and make him the man to be brought down, the bastard on duty. The famous “we lick, we drop, we lynch” in all its splendor

The relentless mechanics imagined by Farhadi have all the makings of a tour de force. A story that, while appearing clear, constantly reveals elements that seem to contradict what we have seen. In this chronicle of the impossibility of redemption where the same words and acts dubbed as heroic become proof of your guilt, the spectator doubts everything and especially the obvious because suddenly, influenced by the change in the ambient atmosphere, the smile that we found touching of the hero becomes too mischievous to be honest!

This incredibly well-oiled mechanism questions both human cowardice and the ravages of rumors multiplied tenfold by social networks to deliver a vision of a devilishly misanthropic world where any generous gesture ends up seeming suspect. Under all the more permanent tension as its protagonists ultimately only rarely come to blows when after a while each scene could lead them there, A hero is not a pleasant film. On the contrary, it is uncomfortable, unpleasant, where lies are revealed to be a weapon shared equally between the camp of good and the camp of evil, here united in a gesture that is anything but Manichean.

Such a perfectly oiled mechanism, however, has collateral damage: a cerebrality that stifles emotion. And you will have to wait for a final shot (which we will obviously not reveal to you) that is magnificent for it to emerge. But this regret does not prevent us from saluting the incredible storyteller that is Farhadi, whose staging accompanies with sobriety (Rahim is most often filmed through windows, like a prisoner in a cage, even outside the prison walls, coming up against the bad faith of his interlocutors) this feeling of suffocation that invades you as the story unfolds. Some will accuse him of always digging the same furrow. Something that is rarely reproached to hard-core authors who have the card. Does being successful make you a potential suspect of driving on autopilot? That is a very “Fahradian” question!

Trailer :

Asghar Farhadi accused of plagiarism for A Hero



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