Oscar contender ‘A Hero’ explores the complexities of doing the right thing
The title of the new Iranian movie, “A Hero,” is ironic. There are no real heroes in this film, and no bad guys, either. The writer-director, Asghar Farhadi, best known for his Oscar-winning 2011 masterpiece “A Separation,” is too much of a humanist to resort to the tactics of melodrama.
The credo of the great French director Jean Renoir, to whom Farhadi has sometimes been compared, was that “in this for a best international feature film Oscar. Just when you think you’ve pinned down someone as good or bad, the tables are turned and the complexities thicken. Just like in real life.
