Iran­ian courts have found Asghar Farha­di guilty of pla­gia­rism on A Hero

A twist­ing, human dra­ma of decep­tion and upend­ed rep­u­ta­tions, cul­mi­nat­ing in a reveal of mis­do­ing with rip­pling moral impli­ca­tions for all involved – as many, many Twit­ter users have already not­ed, Asghar Farha­di​’s real life has tak­en on the trag­ic intrigue typ­i­cal of his movies in a devel­op­ing sit­u­a­tion regard­ing an accu­sa­tion of pla­gia­rism from a for­mer student.

The Hol­ly­wood Reporter relayed the news that courts in Iran have found the film­mak­er guilty of the charges levied by one-time pupil Azadeh Masi­hzadeh, who believes the sim­i­lar­i­ties between her doc­u­men­tary All Win­ners All Losers and Farhadi’s lat­est fea­ture A Hero are no coin­ci­dence. The two-time Oscar win­ner and Cannes main­stay admit­ted that his new film dra­ma­tizes the same true event detailed as non­fic­tion in Masihzadeh’s project, but claimed that he’d researched the top­ic inde­pen­dent­ly. Judges were unconvinced.

Now on the los­ing end of two rul­ings – the pla­gia­rism rap, as well as the back­fired defama­tion suit he ini­tial­ly filed against Masi­hzadeh – Farha­di faces some poten­tial­ly seri­ous con­se­quences, any­thing from fork­ing over all income gen­er­at­ed by the release of A Hero around the globe (around $2.5 mil­lion USD) to pos­si­ble prison time. It’s a pow­er­ful­ly iron­ic turn of events, con­sid­er­ing that both films in ques­tion revolve around a man mak­ing false claims about the cir­cum­stances of his own accomplishments.

While fans of Farhadi’s work and devo­tees of art­house cin­e­ma will be dis­tressed by this regret­table episode, the Iran­ian gov­ern­ment prob­a­bly won’t lose much sleep over it; the artist has come into con­stant con­flict with his state, often decry­ing their cen­sor­ship of chal­leng­ing artis­tic state­ments. After nation­al­ists start­ed to embrace A Hero on the basis that it paints Iran in a pos­i­tive light, Farha­di demand­ed that the film’s sub­mis­sion to the Acad­e­my Awards be revoked as a way of clar­i­fy­ing his stance of opposition.

The THR piece spec­i­fies that Farhadi’s legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion has yet to speak to the press on the present mat­ter, but we haven’t heard the last about this, sure to be a top­ic of fur­ther scruti­ny as the Cannes Film Fes­ti­val launch­es next month. How­ev­er things may ulti­mate­ly shake out, it’s a grim moment for cin­e­ma – not just in Iran, but any­where that art and dis­sent com­min­gle at great risk.