A Hero

A Hero
Starring Amir Jadidi, Mohsen Tanabandeh, Sahar Goldoost, Fereshteh Sadr Orafaie
Directed by Asghar Farhadi

In America the names Stephen Spielberg, Christopher Nolan, and Martin Scorsese are synonymous with the most memorable, impactful, and unforgettable movies of our generation, but the magic of cinema is that it doesn't just reside in America, but spans the world. Iranian director Asghar Farhadi has already supplied the world with visionary works "A Separation" and "The Salesman" both won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, and "A Hero" may follow that same trajectory (although it has some stiff competition with the equally amazing "Drive My Car"). Farhadi not only directs but writes his projects, focusing on the everyman in Iran and the struggles they go through, sometimes from their own accord. "A Hero" focuses again on a simple man who - combined with his own simplicity and the nature of the world at large - finds himself at the center of a struggle that will not only impact his life, but the lives of those around him.

Rahim (Amir Jadidi) is on leave from debtor's prison as he still owes a considerable amount to his former father-in-law Bahram (Mohsen Tanabandeh). He and his girlfriend Farkhondeh (Sahar Goldoost) have a plan to get the money - sell coins that she finds in an abandoned purse to pay off his debt. The problem arises when they learn the coins aren't worth as much as they thought, and Rahim has a crisis of faith and decides to return the purse to its rightful owner. He posts flyers all over town with the police station's number, and when the woman who lost the bag claims it, Rahim is seen as a hero. At first he's hesitant and tells the officers that he didn't find the bag, but the prison sees him as a way to divert attention from a recent suicide at the prison. Rahim is interviewed and hailed as a hero, while Bahram is seen as a villain who won't forgive the debt that Rahim owes him because of his newfound hero status. Soon, however, the wool begins unraveling and Rahim is caught in a web of lies concocted both by himself and outside forces, threatening to tarnish his reputation and his freedom, along with the reputations of those who attached themselves to him in order to gain momentary praise and adoration.

"A Hero" is a highly complex cinematic experience, a story that doesn't spoon-feed you everything but demands you make your own interpretations and judgments based on the events you see, and the motives you don't. It dives into the complex nature of what it means to be "a hero" in a world where hero worship is becoming more and more ingrained in our social psyche. We see, especially through social media, how much hero worship is idolized and hopefully attained by doing the simplest, most obvious things. People, in search of heroic glory, take selfies of themselves handing money to poor schleps on the street. We post long diatribes about the injustices in our society and pat ourselves on the back for being heroic. A hero, nowadays, is seen almost as a god-like being that can do no wrong. This is the heart that encircles "A Hero," because we see Rahim not as an actual "hero" but rather an incredibly flawed individual who's got just enough charisma to weather the storm, but not enough intelligence to come through unscathed.

It's very interesting how the film flips the hero and the villain, as in all respects Rahim is the villain who took Bahram's money and didn't pay him back (not that the term "villain" here is so black-and-white, because he's a good man but couldn't pay his debt). Yet after Rahim is praised for returning the bag, Bahram is seen as a villain who won't forgive Rahim's debts because he's now a hero. Mohsen Tanabandeh excels as Rahim's supposed antagonist, especially in one scene where Rahim is being given a certificate of appreciation and love offering as he sits in the front row with his arms crossed, the only one in the room not cheering Rahim. Everyone is so blinded by the hero worship of Rahim that they treat Bahram as the villain, even though he sacrificed and gave a lot of his own money to help Rahim in his time of trouble.

Amir Jadidi totally owns the role of Rahim and plays him off as a man who seems to have stumbled his way into a situation that he tries desperately to crawl out of, but ends up digging his own grave at every turn. One character in the film remarks that he's either totally smart or completely simple, and I think it's the latter of the two. He often is reacting to situations rather than creating him, and only when it's too late does he realize the mistake he made, and in trying to rectify that mistake he only makes things ten times worse. Rahim is still lovable with his aloof nature, but one can understand if they don't end up totally liking the character by the end of the film, mostly due to his bumbling foolishness. Yet that's being a bit harsh, because he never expected a simple gesture to snowball into what it became, and he can be forgiven a little due to the hurricane around him, even though he inadvertently blew the first wind.

The basis of the story lies with Rahim's girlfriend finding a bag filled with coins, and his ultimate decision to return the bag instead of hawking the coins for his own benefit (even though they did try to do it, and found that the coins weren't worth as much as they thought). This is the crux of the film, and also the beginning moment where we begin to try to decipher Rahim's true motives. If the coins were worth the amount he needed to pay off his debt, would he have still done the right thing? His conscious seems to have gotten the better of him, but the actions that follow seems to make you think otherwise, at least in certain respects. He's become the poster child for heroism, and while he at first tried to tell the truth, others around him didn't want to hear it because of the hero worship complex, and he started going with it. Of course, in order to maintain one lie, you have to keep compounding the lies and much like a house of cards, it all comes blowing down. Soon people notice inconsistencies with Rahim's story, which if revealed could blow the whole imagery of heroism out of the water.

Focusing on the razor-thin concept of hero worship in today's society, "A Hero" delivers a compelling, thought-provoking tale about the differences between being a hero and just doing the right thing, a concept that grows increasingly more blurry as the years go by.

The Score: A+