“A Hero” (PG) *** and a half

BY now, films like “The Runner” or “The White Balloon” have been consigned to that great vault that holds movies once enjoyed but overtaken by time and changed audience preferences. 

They are among a small collection of Iranian movies that I remember with warm pleasure, despite it being several decades since I saw any of them. 

In due course, “A Hero” may well meet the same fate, but while it is fresh, it covers different yet equally challenging, stylistic ground in telling its story. 

It’s the work of writer/director Asghar Farhadi. For the filmgoer, its 128 minutes of dramatic complexities and long list of dramatis personae border on exhausting; its hero must confront obstacles at every turn; its emotional power is unremitting; yet it never goes far beyond the walls of the city – I presume it is Tehran – in its search for justice and emotional comfort.

Farhadi has been accused of plagiarising the screenplay for “A Hero”. Whether that holds water may be a moot point for others to dispute, it needn’t bother us mere Aussie filmgoers looking for a way for Rahim (Amir Jadidi) to resolve a problem not of his making. 

Rahim, an inmate at a debtor’s prison on a two-day leave, decides to return a handbag full of 17 gold coins found by his girlfriend Farkhondeh (Sahar Goldust). The gold could have gone some way toward repaying Rahim’s standing debt to Bahram (Mohsen Tanabandeh), a copy shop owner and the brother-in-law of Rahim’s ex-wife. Under Iranian law, Rahim can be freed when he pays off the debt or if Bahram agrees to forgive it. 

Rahim’s selflessness has turned him into something of an overnight celebrity. He wants to make a partial cash payment followed by future cheques. Prison authorities, needing good publicity after another inmate’s recent suicide, want to present him to the public as a hero. A charity that raises funds to help free prisoners gets involved. But for Bahram it’s all or nothing; he refuses to forgive any share of the debt. 

Media exposure insists on interpreting Rahim’s actions as either totally pure or totally base. Every time it looks as if the mystery of the handbag’s owner will be resolved, another family member or resident of the community building offers a reason to reject what has just been argued in support of a particular line of reasoning. 

How does it end? No spoilers today, dear readers. Get your money’s worth and see the film. 

At Palace Electric