The judgment is final and Asghar Farhadi’s punishment should be determined soon. The director could be forced to hand over to Azadeh Masihzadeh “all revenue from screening the film in theaters or online“, and could even be sentenced to prison.
To date, A Hero has grossed approximately $2.5 million theatrically worldwide.
Amirhossein Shojaei
Amir Jadidi in A Hero
Asghar Farhadi admitted his movie was based on the same true story as All Winners All Losers, which Masihzadeh developed as a student in a documentary workshop that the director led.
During an interview granted to AlloCiné for the promotion of the film at Cannes, the director explained: “Eight or nine years ago, I was teaching in a film workshop as I often do. And as a simple educational project, I proposed to my students to divide into groups of two or three people, and I myself transmitted to them some of these stories which I had noted in the press. I also asked them to try to find others, and to make small subjects on these people, on courses of this type.
Farhadi had sued Masihzadeh for defamation, the latter counterattacked by claiming that the Oscar-winning filmmaker for A separation in 2012 and for The Client in 2017, had plagiarized his work. The Iranian court ruled both lawsuits in favor of Azadeh Masihzadeh, dismissing the defamation case and finding Farhadi guilty of plagiarism.
