Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Farhadis latest,A Hero, is another twisty-turny story about morality and miscommunication.
InA Hero, Amir Jadidis Rahim is released from debtors prison for a brief visit with his family.
During his two days of freedom, he comes to possess a purse filled with gold coins.
Between those two films, there seems to be a tension between old Iran and new Iran.
In Shiraz, compared to, for example, the capital Tehran, the relationships between people are closer.
The families are closer together.
And the other part is the historical background.
Theres a link between that and the concept ofA Hero.
Do you remember the first time that you went to Shiraz?
We went with my family, my grandfather, and with families we were close to.
I was very small, I cant remember it very well.
But now that I see the photos, its very interesting.
InThe Salesman, the information was given in a way to make a mystery, a riddle.
But inA Hero, the information is spread throughout the film in a way that creates ambiguity.
And this is something that I get in my personal life as well.
It seems like nothing in life is clear.
The closest thing to us is us, ourselves.
But even we dont have a clear idea about who we are.
I tried to bring this ambiguity into the film by thinking about how to spread the information throughout.
At the very beginning, we feel like we know Rahim.
All the decisions that he makes, or other people make for him, are clear.
But then as the story unfolds, we find out that all his decisions were actually ambiguous.
Sometimes I think that this is a very Iranian thing.
We know a lot about how other people view Rahim.
How do you think Rahim views himself?Its a very important question.
I think the image he has of himself at the beginning is the image that others gave to him.
We can see from the things that are happening around him that he believes nobody has respected him.
Even his sister, when she sees the bag with the money, she says something disrespectful.
The image that Rahim has of himself is not one he created.
I feel like its only in the last image of the film that he makes an actual decision.
Thats the moment he is himself.
Its a voyage between Rahim Soltani to Rahim Soltani.
This person is not the same person at the end.
Those are the moments when he shows his anger, and he shows who he is.
But in the other parts of the film, it seems that he covers his anger with a smile.
Whenever he gets angry, with the exception at the end of the film, he always censors it.
This is something that comes from our culture, probably.
And this word that we callaberu, or reputation, its very important in the everyday lives of Iranians.
There is a lot of meaning behind this.
I thought that he wastaarof-ing all the time.Yes.
He should look like a very normal, common man in a complicated situation.
I tried to make a fragile physique for him.
It seems like he cant hear well, and he has to lean forward.
His mouth droops a little bit down.
His fingers are not straight and strong and steady, but they are curled and broken.
Yes, Rahims stance is always crooked.
He carries the literal debt of what he owes and an emotional debt for what he owes his family.
Was he always imbalanced?I think that this incident made him become like this.
Thats a very correct point.
Every physical characteristic of Rahim, we made the opposite of Bahram.
During the productions COVID delay, you rewrote Bahram to make him more empathetic.
And Bahrams daughter, Nazanin, is played by your daughter, Sarina.
You worked together onA Separation, in which she played the daughter Termeh.
How do you balance being Sarinas director and her father?[Smiles.]
Its a complicated and hard relationship, especially now that shes older than she was inA Separation.
Its very hard for us to forget our relationship.
And acting as a character that the audience has those feelings toward is very hard.
Farkhondeh (Sahar Goldust) seems very honest in her love for Rahim.
But then I remember she wanted to sell somebody elses gold for her and Rahims benefit.
But the quality Farkhondeh has is that she wants everything for hereshq, for her love.
When she sees that Rahim is a little upset or suffers from something, she suffers even more.
This is something like what mothers feel, like my mother.
When they see that their child is in pain, they cant go to sleep.
They stay awake day and night.
From a certain point of view, this is the most romantic or loving relationship in all my films.
He always thought it was more than love.
In English, we saylove.
In Farsi, we sayeshq.
Its a very poetic word and has a very poetic angle, and we dont have that in English.
What we have with Farkhondeh in this film is the same thing.
Its like she doesnt see herself at all.
No one in this film really seems like a hero, which is the irony of the title.
It doesnt happen in real life.
Maybe in different periods of our lives, we need a hero.
But we also need to understand that this is a made-up idea, this is not the real thing.
Maybe in a family, I can understand that one member becomes a hero of that family.
But for a whole society, I dont really understand how one person can become a hero for everyone.
Maybe for a small period of time.
But for ten years?
Its not going to happen, unless that person dies.
I also want to ask aboutthe statementyou released in November on Instagram.
That statement of mine, the people of Iran understand it more.
Because the Iran situation is so complex, its hard for a foreigner to understand it.
They have to know whats going on, the complexity of Irans situation, to understand it.
But if I want to summarize it, its talking about the independence of the artist.
But nobody knows whats going to happen tomorrow.
The taxi driver, played by Ali Hasannejad Ranjbar, has a perspective that is anti-establishment, anti-prison.
He feels like he could be a version of Rahims future.
You who are somebody.
Why are you accusing this poor innocent guy?
He helps Rahim without deriving any benefit from it, the same way that Farkhondeh does.
There is a quality ofisarin him.
[Farhadi breaks off, looks at Farzad.]
Im not sure howisarwould be translated.
I dont know the exact word.
Its the name of Tarkovskys movie too.
Farhadi:He sort of sacrifices himself for something else.
Its very selfless.His character is very different from Rahim.
Rahim has covered himself, hidden his intentions and motivations behind a veil.
But the taxi driver, hes more honest.
His hand is shown.
InA Hero, Mali makestahdig,Persian crispy-bottomed rice, for Rahim.
[Farhadi and Farzad laugh.]
Potatoes, of course!
Rice is delicious, but its not the same.Farzad: Theyre different, but theyre both good.
Farhadi:A mix of rice and potatoes is the best one.
Farzad:Too much carbs.
No!Farhadi:I love it.
Farzad:Even the macaroni version.
Farhadi:Oh, yes.
Basically all of it.All of it.
Now I want to talk about the final scene.
In the past, youve talked about how you dont really believe in endings.
But this film has a very finite end point: Rahim goes back to prison.
Can you talk about designing that scene?
Hes seeing it outside.
In the last scene, there are two things happening at the same time.
There is some kind of hope in it.
For that man, his life has started again.Yes.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
