Asghar Farhadi addresses A Hero plagiarism controversy for the first time

Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi, who won the Grand Prix at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival for his movie A Hero, has returned to the festival as a member of the competition jury–and under a cloud of controversy.

Farhadi was accused of plagiarizing A Hero by Azadeh Masihzadeh—a former student who screened her documentary on the same subject, All Winners, All Losers—in Farhadi’s workshop in 2014. Farhadi acknowledged viewing the documentary, but claimed that his fictionalized version was inspired by earlier reporting on the story of Mohammad Reza Shokri.

During the opening day jury press conference at this year’s Cannes festival, he addressed the matter publicly for the first time, saying, “You can make a story or a film from the same event, without plagiarizing the other.”

According to IndieWire, when asked about the potential legal consequences for Masihzadeh in his anti-defamation suit, Farhadi stated that “Incorrect information has been corrected” and suggested “certain journalists spread misinformation.” He added, “What I did in A Hero is not related to that workshop; it is based on a current event two years prior. A Hero is one interpretation of the event. The documentary is another approach, they are not the same at all.”

The Oscar winner reportedly said that the case “is currently being studied by Iran’s religious authorities,” per IndieWire.

He went on: “There will be a jury to study the case. The judge who is ruling said the two stories were different. He decided there was substance, so a jury could be given. I don’t know when the case will be heard. It’s a lengthy process. It created an amount of ill-feeling. My film is not based on the documentary. There was the suggestion made that the earnings of the film should be shared between the two of us! The matter will be cleared up. I am sorry that it has created so much ill-feeling. I hope the mistaken information written by journalists will be corrected. I have not been sentenced!”

The plagiarism claims may have cast a pall over A Hero’s critical acclaim, but it obviously hasn’t impeded the director’s ability to serve on the Cannes jury. Whether there will be more serious legal consequences still remains to be seen.