Oscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi faces plagiarism trial in Iranian court

Asghar Farhadi, Academy Award-winning director Separation And the the sellerwas indicted in a plagiarism case brought by one of his former students, who claimed he took the idea for his 2021 movie “Hero” from a documentary she had made for movie class.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Azadeh Mizizadeh brought the case after Farhadi sued her for defamation; In both cases, the courts ruled in favor of Masih Zadeh. The case will now be referred to a second judge whose ruling will decide whether or not to convict Farhadi. It can then be appealed.

In 2014, Masihzadeh produced a short documentary for a workshop led by Farhadi, about a real inmate in a debtors’ prison, who finds a bag of gold and returns it while on vacation in prison. Masih Zadeh’s movie was called All Winners, All Losers, and it was shown at a film festival in the Iranian city of Shiraz in 2018. Before that, the story had already spread.

Farhadi movie a hero, which stars Amir Al-Jadidi in the role of an inmate in the debtors’ prison who finds a bag of gold and returns it. It was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021 and won second place in the Grand Prix; Its text is attributed to Farhadi alone.

Masih Zadeh told The Hollywood Reporter: Farhadi pressured her to sign a document handing him the rights to the story at no charge.

Farhadi claimed through his lawyer that the main idea for his movie came much earlier, and was inspired by the movie Bertolt Brecht’s Life of Galileo.

Farhadi’s allegation of defamation against Masihzadeh I refused After the court found that there was insufficient evidence to suggest that Masih Zadeh was deliberately trying to damage the director’s reputation.

The subsequent plagiarism lawsuit also went the way of Masih Zadeh in the initial court ruling, after Farhadi claimed he researched the story independently and did not take credit for A Hero.

“We firmly believe that the court will dismiss Ms. Masihzadeh who cannot claim ownership of matters in the public domain given that the prisoner’s story was revealed in both newspaper articles and television reports years before the publication of Ms Masihzadeh’s documentary,” a statement from producer Farhadi French Alexandre Mallet Guy reads. The story of this ex-prisoner finding gold on the street and returning it to its owner is just the starting point for the “Hero” plot. The rest is from a pure smaller creation.”

This article was modified on April 5, 2022. It was originally stated that Asghar Farhadi He was convicted of the crime, after widespread misinformation, but it has now been changed to reflect that he had been charged and a trial would decide the outcome.