ReviewCannes 2021: A Hero movie review – Asghar Farhadi moral drama sees the Iranian auteur back on top form
- An intense drama that deals with issues of truth, honesty and the price of freedom, A Hero is an absorbing dissection of Iranian society
- Placing his protagonist – and the viewer – in a moral maze that must be skilfully negotiated, it is one of Farhadi’s strongest films to date
4/5 stars
Placing his protagonist – and the viewer – in a moral maze that must be skilfully negotiated, it is one of Farhadi’s strongest films since 2011’s Oscar-winning A Separation placed him firmly on the international stage. Certainly it’s far more satisfying than his previous film, the Spanish-set Everybody Knows with Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, which opened the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.
A Hero, which plays in competition at this year’s Cannes festival, stars Amir Jadidi as Rahim, a family man on a two-day leave from prison in the city of Shiraz, where he’s serving a sentence for a debt.
He has no job, and the money owed to a shopkeeper, Bahram (Mohsen Tanabandeh), the miserly brother of his ex-wife, still hangs around his neck like the proverbial albatross. At least he has the support of his kindly sister and her husband, as well as Farkhondeh (Sahar Goldust), the girl he intends to marry.