A Hero written and directed by Asghar Farhadi – nominated for the most prestigious film award, in my opinion, The Palme d’Or, The Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Non- English Language and winner of many other trophies - 10 out of 10

 

A Hero written and directed by Asghar Farhadi – nominated for the most prestigious film award, in my opinion, The Palme d’Or, The Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Non- English Language and winner of many other trophies

 

10 out of 10

 

This is one of the best movies I have seen, and Asghar Farhadi is definitely one of the luminaries of our age – and other centuries too – he is the one who gave audiences The Salesman https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/11/note-on-salesman-aka-forushande-writer.html which for the French is Le Client

 

In the opening chapter of the film, we see Rahim Soltani – played by the fabulous Amir Jadidi – who is The Hero, going to visit his brother-in-law, as he is out for a couple of days from prison, where he was sent because he could not pay a debt, he had taken money from a loan shark, and someone else offered a guarantee

It is a rather complex story, but only in the good sense, it is not one of those overwhelming narratives, where personages keep popping up, and you cannot follow the plot, on the contrary, here we have twists that enrich the experience of watching this magnum opera, you see that The Hero is not pure and perfect, he is human

 

Rahim Soltani tries to convince a man named Bahram to accept an advance on the sum he owes and then get monthly payments, once he will be out of jail, he will have a job, so he would be able to give back the money, but his nemesis does not accept this, however, we will see he is not the villain of the story

Just as Rahim will show us, he has serious flaws, his opponent is not a ghoul – let me anticipate and say that in fact, the man had guaranteed to help Rahim, and then he lost his daughter dowry as a consequence, and this is serious in fundamentalist, Shia Iran – but this is coming to us gradually, in a masterly way

 

Rahim meets with the woman he wants to marry – he is divorced and has a son who stutters, the latter will play an important role in the script and will make audiences cry for him, I guess – and they enter a jewelry shop to ask the price for seventeen (I think they were 17) coins made of gold, which he wants to use

The plan is to convince Bahran to accept the cash mentioned, the total sum is a few thousand euros or dollars, though in tomans, the local currency, they talk of hundreds of millions, and then he will be freed from jail, and work for the rest, only for that to work, there is a question of checks, and let us skip the details

What happens is The Hero decides to stop trying with the coins, and give back the purse to the woman who had lost it, because yes, they did not own the coins, they were in a bag that was found, and later our man will explain how the calculator did not work in the jewelry shop and he saw signs that he has to do the right thing

 

He gave the number of the jail, and placed an ad, and then a call comes through and eventually, a woman comes to the house of Rahim’s sister – this is where his son lives too – and claims the purse and the coins, gives a little money to Siavah Soltani – the son, and by the way, the child actor, no older than twelve or so, is wonderful…

The warden of the prison finds about the deed, and a television station is interested in filming an interview with The Hero, and the prisoner is instructed to forget he did not find the purse, and stick to some story, which he does, a charity gets involved, money are raised to help him and they try to get him out of jail

 

Bahran insists that this is nonsense, what has The Hero done, except his duty, and then he speaks about his own grievance, the dowry lost for his daughter, and he has more than a point there, besides, stories circulate on the internet – yes, that happens in the Islamic Republic as well – and they will affect our hero

The charity got a job for him, but at the state office, they question the truth of the generous act, and they want Rahim Soltani to bring proof, the woman who lost the bag, and more, but how to find the stranger, this becomes an investigation, a thriller if you will, because they have little, to not trace of that elusive female

 

She called on the cell phone, and so they call that number, only they get the taxi driver who brought her, and he will play a key role, but he only knows he stopped at a jewelry shop, they will have the photo, and they try to follow up with this, but no result, so the taxi driver says ‘you bring someone to claim she is the person’

Which is what they do, they bring the would-be wife, and she testifies for the ones who would give the job, and they get stuck, for they want her to bring the coins, and evidently, she has no such stash, she just plays the role, and furthermore, rumors spread that the whole story is manufactured by the prison authorities

 

Angry because he has done the right thing, and he is not about to get his freedom, Rahim confronts his nemesis, Bahran, and that is degenerating into a scuffle, at the shop of his ‘jailer’, where the two trade some insults, and some truths, regarding the dowry, the damage done to Bahram, in the end others intervene

Bahram’s daughter, the one whose wedding had been compromised, is there, she films the clash, and then she sends it to the charity, which is very upset, the board meets, and they want to withdraw the support for The Hero…

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”