The Neighbor, the newest film by Farhadi, raises doubt on a decent Samaritan who has done nothing wrong.
Around the third-quarter mark of the movie, a supporting character remarks to Rahim (Amir Jadidi), the main character, “You’re either very bright or very simple.
” Rahim, a prisoner serving a sentence for failing to pay a debt who became a cause célèbre after attempting to return a suitcase full of gold money to its owner while on weekend leave from prison, is supposed to be either gaming the system or a dullard waltzing through life.
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‘A Hero’ Review: Debts No Honest Man Can Pay
Rahim is probably just an average guy trying to get by. The film by Iranian director Asghar Farhadi is entertaining because it gives spectators the freedom to establish their own opinions—not just about Rahim, the main character.
In A Hero, nobody has to be liked or despised. Everyone is acting logically and sensibly, if not always honestly.
The main conceit of “A Hero” is a lie, but the bigger lesson is that in the age of social media, phones that record every conversation, and the constant threat of going viral, there aren’t many lies that can hold up against someone who is motivated to find the truth.
Rahim, who is on furlough from prison, travels to the Tomb of Xerxes in the first scene in order to meet with his brother-in-law Hossein, pay off his debtor, and ensure his release (Alireza Jahandideh).
Rahim Begins his Quest to Find the Real Owner of the Gold Coins.
Rahim has 17 gold pieces in his possession, which will suffice to pay for roughly half of his debt.
Rahim decides to find the rightful owner of the gold pieces after his creditor Bahram (Mohsen Tanabandeh) refuses to accept the half payment unless Hossein guarantees the balance, a favour Hossein is reluctant to give given Rahim’s unemployment. You see, he didn’t own them and found them in a bag near a bus stop.
But that’s just not true. The woman he intends to marry found the package, not Rahim. He is not allowed to discuss her in public, though, because of the hardline leaders of Iran’s mediaeval views on the nature of male-female connections.
Rahim doesn’t know where the coins came from or went because the woman who takes the bag and gives it to him disappears into the dunes of the desert. whether they were real or not.
Theories are Developed in an Effort to Make Sense of the Unknown.
Rahim faked the entire affair, in Bahram’s opinion, in an effort to repair his reputation. Social media criticism alleges that the prison devised the scheme to draw attention away from the horrendous living circumstances it provides. Rahim’s friends’ messages reveal that his account of what happened is inaccurate.
Rahim’s credibility is questioned as a result of a sophisticated deception he and his girlfriend pulled on one another. Bahram’s credibility is only weakened further by Rahim’s public rejection of his words via video.
There are contradictions between what we witnessed and Rahim’s account of what transpired during their attempt to turn the gold into cash. He is finally unable to escape the growing web of lies.
I couldn’t help but compare A Hero with Parasite because both feature dishonest characters who accumulate debt. It made me reevaluate what I believed to be true about Rahim.
Can we assume that his business partner stole the starting money and that he accrued debt as a result? Possibly, we know where his girlfriend obtained the bag. When attempting to understand Rahim, all we have to go on is his propensity to distort the truth in order to benefit himself.
Most Compassionate Character
Bahram, Rahim’s father, is actually the most sympathetic character because he had to sell the dowry and other belongings of his daughter in order to pay back the loan shark he had borrowed money from.
Bahram did it because his sister is (was?) married to Rahim, and given that their son Siavash (Saleh Karimaei) struggles to communicate and obviously needs the support of a stable family, as well as her complete absence from the movie, it raises questions about Rahim’s personality prior to his imprisonment.
Bahram’s discontent with Rahim’s unexpected prominence and the notion that his prior transgressions should be forgotten because he did the barest minimum to be a decent guy gives the movie its most sympathetic vibe.
Final Words
Despite the varying viewpoints and contradictory narratives offered by Rahim and his allies, as well as the confusion brought on by conspiracy theorists on social media, Farhadi has cleverly created a film about the unquestionably tangible nature of truth. Thanks for reading our article ‘A Hero’ Review: Debts No Honest Man Can Pay.
