Debtor’s prison brings Charles Dickens to mind for most of us but this Dickensian nightmare appears to be alive in Iran – or at least prison for debt. In A HERO, two-time Oscar winning writer/director Asghar Farhadi’s latest drama/thriller, a man imprisoned for debt gets a two-day pass during which he hopes to work out a deal with his creditor. Things do not go as planned but Farhadi takes us on a twisty path and, at one point, it does look like the imprisoned debtor might become a hero.
A HERO is Iran’s official submission for the Oscars and won the Grand Prix award at Cannes last year, as well as being on several critics’ Top Ten lists. Iranian filmmaker Farhadi has built a sterling reputation, including with Oscar winners A SEPARATION and THE SALESMAN, as a director with a knack for taking stories that seem straight forward at first but then turn into something more complex and twisty, which reveals things about human nature while often commenting on life in modern Iran.
In most of Farhadi’s films, the main characters are ordinary middle-class people who find themselves in extraordinary and difficult situations, but in A HERO, the main character is someone barely holding on and on the fringe of the economic scale, a man imprisoned for a debt he can’t repay.
Rahim Soltani (Amir Jadidi) is released from prison on a two-day pass with hopes that he can work out a deal with the creditor who put him there. When he is released, he goes straight away to see his brother-in-law Hossein (Ali Reza Jahandideh) at his job, working at an archaeological site, Xeres’ Tomb, near Shiraz. Hossein greets him warmly and agrees to help him set up a meeting with the creditor, Bahram (Mohsen Tanabandeh), a miserly print shop owner, who now refuses to take Rahim’s calls.
Rahim owes Bahram 150,000 tomans for a business loan which he couldn’t pay back. It wasn’t that Rahim did anything wrong. His business partner ran off with the money, after which their mutual business went under. Previously, Rahim had been a calligrapher and sign painter but changes in Iranian society had rendered his profession unprofitable and less in demand.
When Hossein returns to finish his work shift, Rahim borrows his van, and goes to see his girlfriend Farkhondeh (Sahar Goldust). After she rushes across a busy street and hops into the van with Rahim, we learn why Rahim is hopeful about working out at deal with his creditor. Farkhondeh has found a purse on the street, with 17 gold coins, which she hopes they can sell to pay back the loan, so they can get married. Right now, their relationship must be kept secret, due to family disapproval on both sides.
But the coins turn out to be less valuable than hoped and will not cover the whole loan. When creditor Bahram refuses partial payment, Rahim makes the decision to try to return the money to whoever lost the purse. But Rahim’s decision to return the money to the owner comes with some complications, as he has to claim he found it, to conceal Farkhondeh’s identity and involvement.
Despite the small lie, his plan to do the right thing and find the owner of the purse seems to have an immediate positive effect, making him an instant media hero and gaining him admiration all around for his moral values, something that plays very well in modern Iranian society. It looks like a happy ending on the way.
But wait. There is a saying about the danger in doing the right thing for the wrong reason, and another one about no good deed going unpunished.
Both might be the case with Rahim, who is played well by Amir Jadidi. It is unclear if Rahim is doing this noble thing because he believes it is the right thing to do, or if he is hoping to use the public attention to either raise funds from donations to pay off his debt or pressure his creditor to forgive the loan. Rahim is a charming, good-looking man with a mild, pleasant demeanor and an ever-present smile that people seem drawn towards. But he is also someone with a hangdog look, who seems always to be hoping people will help him out, playing on his natural appeal. That ever-present smile starts seem odd, vanishing only briefly when he is worried, and begins to look more like a mask, or maybe a shield against anything that is unpleasant.
What seems simple at first, becomes complicated, and the characters and their relationships are revealed to be more complex than they seem at first. What seems at first like a drama turns into a thriller, with twists around every corner.
We learn more about the hero but also learn about the creditor, making him not just a villain. There are reasons for his stubbornness and resentments, and there is history between the two men. For one thing, the creditor is Rahim’s ex-wife’s brother-in-law, the wife who divorced Rahim when he was sent to prison. Further, the money he lent Rahim was supposed to be for a dowry for his grown daughter Nazanin (Sarina Farhadi), something she must have to get married.
Rahim’s and Farkhondeh’s living situations are also complicated, as both are dependent on family, reflecting the kind of extended family relationships found in modern Iran. While on leave, Rahim is staying with Hossein and his sister Malileh (Maryam Shahdaei), as his son Siavash (Saleh Karimai), a shy boy with a stutter, lives with his uncle and aunt and their two daughters. Rahim’s ex-wife seems little involved with their son, and when the boy gets in trouble at school, she tells the school to call the aunt and uncle instead. Rahim’s girlfriend Farkhondeh lives with her brother and his family. As she is now over thirty, her brother who would like her to marry, but he has nothing but disdain for her would-be fiance Rahim. She would like to escape her situation as much as Rahim wants to get out of jail, and Rahim looks to her like a lifeline.
The story is layered with commentary about Iranian society, past and present. The story takes place in Shiraz, a city near several archaeological sites, a choice that may be intended to evoke Iran’s past. A lot of the story takes place on Shiraz’s busy streets, crowded with traffic and people, which creates a noisy, chaotic backdrop against which this drama/thriller plays out. Media – and social media in particular – and the importance Iran places of morality play a critical role in how this story unfolds.
A HERO is another fine example of Asghar Farhadi’s skill as a writer and director, taking a seemingly simple situation and peeling back the complex human layers to reveal truths about people and modern Iranian society.
A HERO, in Farsi with English subtitles, opens Friday, Jan. 7, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema and at other theaters nationally, and is available Jan. 21 for streaming on Amazon.
RATING: 4 out of 4 stars
