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A HERO
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In the latest film from the two-time Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi, a good Samaritan comes under suspicion.
"The last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason." "A Hero," the new film by the Iranian writer-director Asghar Farhadi, seems to circle around these lines from T.S. Eliot's "Murder in the Cathedral," spinning Eliot's observation about morality into a squall of questions about ethics and motives.
At the center of the movie is what looks like an unambiguous act of decency. A man - the title character, a sign painter named Rahim Soltani (Amir Jadidi) - arranges for the return of 17 gold coins to their rightful owner. What could be wrong with that? What could go wrong as a consequence?
Quite a lot, as it happens. Nothing in this stressful, intricately plotted fable of modern life is as simple as we or the characters might wish. Rahim, who has been imprisoned because of a debt, wants to clear the books and restart his life. We meet him at the beginning of a hectic two-day furlough, as he bounces from one encounter to another, hoping to secure his freedom by settling with his creditor, Bahram (Mohsen Tanabandeh), a print-shop owner who is the brother-in-law of Rahim's former wife...
By A.O. Scott
READ MORE:
'A Hero' Review: Debts No Honest Man Can Pay - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
