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Oscar-Winning Iranian Filmmaker Asghar Farhadi Charged With Plagiarism For A Hero
Two-time Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi has been indicted on charges of plagiarism by a court in Iran. According to various media reports, Farhadi was indicted after the Iranian court found evidence that the premise of his latest movie A Hero has been taken from the documentary All Winners All Losers.
It must be noted that the documentary in question has been made by Asghar’s former film student, Azadeh Masihzadeh. The court found that Farhadi violated the copyright terms by picking up key elements from the aforementioned documentary whilst denying due credit to its maker.
Meanwhile, the case will now be passed on to a second judge who may ask for a re-examination. The second judge’s ruling could also be further challenged in another court. Farhadi’s lawyer Kaveh Rad has stated that the ruling of the first judge should not be considered the final verdict as the case still happens to be under trial.
In the meantime, another had been filed by Mohammad Reza Shokri, who happens to be a former prisoner and subject of Masihzadeh’s documentary. Shokri has claimed that Asghar’s movie A Hero has damaged his reputation. However, his case was dismissed by the court, according to a report carried by the Hollywood Reporter.
A
Hero’s
co-producer
Alexandre
Mallet-Guy
has
said
in
a
statement
that
he
is
confident
about
Asghar
emerging
victorious
from
this
court
battle.
The
producer’s
statement
read,
“We
firmly
believe
that
the
court
will
dismiss
Ms
Masihzadeh,
who
cannot
claim
ownership
on
matters
in
the
public
domain
given
that
the
prisoner’s
story
has
been
disclosed
in
both
press
articles
and
TV
reports
years
before
Ms
Masihzadeh’s
documentary
was
published.”
For
the
unversed,
A
Hero
had
won
the
Grand
Jury
Prize
at
the
Cannes
Film
Festival
last
year.
