UPDATE: Asghar Farhadi has responded to the plagiarism claims and what he says is a smear campaign against him. Farhadi is accusing the student in question, Azadeh Masihzadeh, of both trying to ruin him and get something at the same time, without deserving it.
There have been rumors from Iran that Masihzadeh is being led and guided by Iranian politicians who want to use her in order to frame, degrade and defame Farhadi.
I can believe that, Iranian judicial system is definitely a corrupt one. In fact, Iranian judges are very well known to hammer down on political enemies and Farhadi, with his openly vocal stance against the regime, would be a prime target.
A spokesperson for Farhadi is claiming that Rachel Aviv’s “The New Yorker” piece distorted the facts of the case. Farhadi adds that Aviv dismissed and omitted almost all of his comments and the documents he provided to her about the claims referenced in the article. He’s also insinuating that Aviv was politically motivated to side with the woman in the case to build a narrative.
From an Iranian WoR reader via email:
You think Iran gives a damn about plagiarism. Man, even our public anthem is plagiarized. Iran is not even a part of the global copyright treaty. But when it comes to bashing Farhadi, suddenly Iran cares about plagiarism, and suddenly finds Farhadi guilty of stealing ideas, despite all the hardcore evidence showing the opposite.
EARLIER: Pablo Picasso once said, "Good artists copy. Great artists steal.” That seems to have been the mindset of Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi when he decided to make his 2019 film “A Hero,” or at least that’s what Azadeh Masihzadeh, a former film student of his, is claiming.
The New Yorker has published a piece that makes the “plagiarism” claims against the Iranian filmmaker seem even more credible. Masihzadeh, Farhadi and a host of other people are interviewed. Farhadi comes off as rather conniving, especially since he practically forced his former student to sign a sketchy NDA and is now countersuing her for defamation.
Briefly, to sum up this entire affair, it seems as though Farhadi’s MO was to set-up film student workshops in Iran, find ideas and then claim them as his own. There are eye witnesses, former students, coerced contracts and much more being presented here as Masihzadeh‘s evidence.
After you read this New Yorker piece, It's pretty clear that Farhadi would have never directed “A Hero,” or many other of his films, had he not “taught” the documentary workshops, and, more specifically, stolen stories from his former students.
However, a major question that needs to be asked: is it plagiarism if the story that was “stolen” happened in real-life, was well-known to a portion of the public and was even reported on by Iranian media? Farhadi, rather lazily, decided to have students to research for his next projects, they just didn’t know it.
The two-time Oscar-winning Iranian director is now set to stand trial for stealing the premise of “A Hero,” from an earlier non-fiction film, “All Winners All Losers”, made by Masihzadeh. Her documentary is actually available online and, from what I’ve seen of it, is nearly identical to the plot of “A Hero.”
After being found guilty by a first Iranian judge earlier this year, a second judge will now determine Farhadi’s punishment. At worst, Farhadi could be forced to hand over “all income earned by the screening of the film in theaters or online” to Masihzadeh, but could even face time in prison.
It's a shame because I loved “A Hero”, but this really is just the perfect turn of events considering the movie's story; a beacon of morality turns out to be evidence of moral rot. This story gives me Kiarostami's “Close-Up” vibes. Maybe Farhadi can now pull a Panahi and make a meta movie out of this real-life drama.
This absolutely matters. That room was practically all Oscar voters. Fact remains, “Michael” was always going to contend for a best picture nomination, you just had to set your biases aside.