According to the Hollywood Reporter, Azadeh Masihzadeh filed the case after Farhadi had earlier sued her for defamation. In both cases, the courts ruled in favor of Masihzadeh. The case will now go to a second judge who will decide whether or not Farhadi will be convicted. An appeal can then be lodged. In 2014, Masihzadeh made a short documentary about a workshop headed by Farhadi, about a real inmate of a debtor prison who found and returned a bag of gold while on leave in prison. Masihzadeh’s film was called All Winners, All Losers and was screened at a film festival in the Iranian city of Shiraz in 2018. Before that, however, the story had already spread. Farhadi A Hero’s film, starring Amir Jadidi as a prison inmate who finds and returns a bag of gold, was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021 and won the grand second prize. His script is credited only to Farhadi. Masihzadeh told the Hollywood Reporter that Farhadi pressured her to sign a document giving him the rights to the story without payment. Farhadi claimed through his lawyer that the main idea for his film came much earlier and was inspired by Bertolt Brecht’s The Life of Galileo. Farhadi’s defamation allegation against Masihzadeh was rejected after the court found that there was insufficient evidence to suggest that Masihzadeh was deliberately trying to tarnish the director’s reputation. The subsequent plagiarism lawsuit also went to Masihzadeh’s street with an initial court ruling, as Farhadi claimed he had independently investigated the story and did not attribute it to A Hero. “We firmly believe that the court will reject Ms. Masihzadeh, who can not claim ownership in public property matters, given that the detainee’s story has been revealed in both press articles and television reports years before the publication of her documentary. Mrs. Masihzadeh “, said Reads the French producer of Farhadi, Alexandre Mallet-Guy. The story of this former prisoner who finds gold on the street and gives it back to its owner is just the beginning of the plot of “A Hero”. The rest is Asgar’s pure creation. “
This article was amended on April 5, 2022. It was originally stated that Asghar Farhadi had been convicted of the crime after extensive misinformation, but has now changed it to reflect that charges have been brought and a trial will decide the outcome.
