Asghar Farhadi is being accused of plagiarism over his latest film A Hero, which jointly won the Grand Prix at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.
The allegation comes from one of the award-winning Iranian director's former students.
Azadeh Masihzadeh filed a lawsuit against Farhadi, claiming he stole the premise for A Hero from a documentary that she presented in his class called All Winners, All Losers.
An Iranian court is now going to decide the validity of the claim. If Masihzadeh wins the lawsuit, Farhadi is likely to be forced to hand over all income earned by the screening of the film in cinemas and online. He could even face time in prison.
However, if the court decides Masihzadeh was falsely accusing the director, she could be sentenced to up to two years in prison and be subjected to 74 lashes.
A Hero, which was shortlisted for the Oscars 2022 but didn't receive a nomination, tells the story of Rahim, a divorced father on leave from a debtor’s prison, who returns a bag of money he finds in the hopes of rehabilitating his public image.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Farhadi taught a documentary filmmaking workshop in Tehran’s Karnameh Institute in 2014. Masihzadeh was enrolled in the class.
As part of the workshop, the students were tasked with researching and shooting a documentary based on the theme of “returning lost things”.
While most of the students based their projects on news cases reported in Iranian media, Masihzadeh presented an original story she found.
Her documentary, which was screened at the Shiraz Arts festival in 2018, revolved around an inmate in a debtor’s prison in Shiraz who decided to return a bag of money he found.
Masihzadeh outlined the story in Farhadi’s workshop in 2014.
“I remember that moment very well because we were all shocked — Mr Farhadi was shocked as well — because Azadeh’s story was so interesting and she’d come up with it all herself,” one of Masihzadeh’s fellow students, Rola Shams, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Masihzadeh said Farhadi used the story she found as the premise for A Hero without giving her due credit. The documentarian says she was called into Farhadi’s office in 2019, before production on A Hero began, and was pressured into signing a document that claimed the original idea of All Winners, All Losers belonged to Farhadi.
“I shouldn’t have signed it, but I felt under great pressure to do so,” Masihzadeh told The Hollywood Reporter. She also noted that she was not offered payment for signing over the story rights to Farhadi.
“Mr Farhadi is this great master of Iranian cinema. He used that power he had over me to get me to sign.”
Farhadi, whose films A Separation (2011) and The Salesman (2016) won Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film, rejected allegations of plagiarism.
His lawyer, Sophie Borowsky — a legal representative for Memento Production and Memento Distribution, co-producer and French distributor of A Hero — said the document had no legal merit.
“Asghar Farhadi apparently wanted to make clear that he was the one who proposed the idea and the plot of the documentary during the workshop,” she wrote in an email to The Hollywood Reporter.
According to Borowsky, Farhadi decided to write and direct A Hero based on a free interpretation of Shokri’s story, “which was published in media before the start of the above-mentioned workshop”.
She also noted that the main character of A Hero, Rahim, “not only does not share any character traits with Mr Shokri but also, in some aspects, he is the polar opposite. Therefore, there was no need to contact Mr Shokri for research.”
Instead, Farhadi based his research on “newspapers and other outlets”, Borowsky said.
Since Masihzadeh has come forward with her accusations, another of Farhadi’s former students has also claimed the lauded Iranian filmmaker plagiarised a project he presented at a 2011 workshop.
However, he noted he will not be taking legal action. Speaking anonymously, he said: “Mr Farhadi is a genius filmmaker and what he did with my story is his work, not mine.”
TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa
Rating: 4.5/5
The%20specs
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E4.0-litre%20flat%206-cylinder%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E7-speed%20PDK%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E500hp%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E450Nm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDh530%2C300%20as%20tested%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Now%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
more from Janine di Giovanni
The specs
Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Power: 272hp at 6,400rpm
Torque: 331Nm from 5,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.7L/100km
On sale: now
Price: Dh149,000
U19 WORLD CUP, WEST INDIES
UAE group fixtures (all in St Kitts)
- Saturday 15 January: UAE beat Canada by 49 runs
- Thursday 20 January: v England
- Saturday 22 January: v Bangladesh
UAE squad:
Alishan Sharafu (captain), Shival Bawa, Jash Giyanani, Sailles
Jaishankar, Nilansh Keswani, Aayan Khan, Punya Mehra, Ali Naseer, Ronak Panoly,
Dhruv Parashar, Vinayak Raghavan, Soorya Sathish, Aryansh Sharma, Adithya
Shetty, Kai Smith
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
More from Neighbourhood Watch
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
|
1.
|
United States
|
|
2.
|
China
|
|
3.
|
UAE
|
|
4.
|
Japan
|
|
5
|
Norway
|
|
6.
|
Canada
|
|
7.
|
Singapore
|
|
8.
|
Australia
|
|
9.
|
Saudi Arabia
|
|
10.
|
South Korea
|
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
Teachers' pay - what you need to know
Pay varies significantly depending on the school, its rating and the curriculum. Here's a rough guide as of January 2021:
- top end schools tend to pay Dh16,000-17,000 a month - plus a monthly housing allowance of up to Dh6,000. These tend to be British curriculum schools rated 'outstanding' or 'very good', followed by American schools
- average salary across curriculums and skill levels is about Dh10,000, recruiters say
- it is becoming more common for schools to provide accommodation, sometimes in an apartment block with other teachers, rather than hand teachers a cash housing allowance
- some strong performing schools have cut back on salaries since the pandemic began, sometimes offering Dh16,000 including the housing allowance, which reflects the slump in rental costs, and sheer demand for jobs
- maths and science teachers are most in demand and some schools will pay up to Dh3,000 more than other teachers in recognition of their technical skills
- at the other end of the market, teachers in some Indian schools, where fees are lower and competition among applicants is intense, can be paid as low as Dh3,000 per month
- in Indian schools, it has also become common for teachers to share residential accommodation, living in a block with colleagues
Ain Dubai in numbers
126: The length in metres of the legs supporting the structure
1 football pitch: The length of each permanent spoke is longer than a professional soccer pitch
16 A380 Airbuses: The equivalent weight of the wheel rim.
9,000 tonnes: The amount of steel used to construct the project.
5 tonnes: The weight of each permanent spoke that is holding the wheel rim in place
192: The amount of cable wires used to create the wheel. They measure a distance of 2,4000km in total, the equivalent of the distance between Dubai and Cairo.
Kill%20
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Nikhil%20Nagesh%20Bhat%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%20Lakshya%2C%20Tanya%20Maniktala%2C%20Ashish%20Vidyarthi%2C%20Harsh%20Chhaya%2C%20Raghav%20Juyal%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204.5%2F5%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
La Mer lowdown
La Mer beach is open from 10am until midnight, daily, and is located in Jumeirah 1, well after Kite Beach. Some restaurants, like Cupagahwa, are open from 8am for breakfast; most others start at noon. At the time of writing, we noticed that signs for Vicolo, an Italian eatery, and Kaftan, a Turkish restaurant, indicated that these two restaurants will be open soon, most likely this month. Parking is available, as well as a Dh100 all-day valet option or a Dh50 valet service if you’re just stopping by for a few hours.
65
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirectors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EScott%20Beck%2C%20Bryan%20Woods%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAdam%20Driver%2C%20Ariana%20Greenblatt%2C%20Chloe%20Coleman%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
ON%20TRACK
%3Cp%3EThe%20Dubai%20Metaverse%20Assembly%20will%20host%20three%20main%20tracks%3A%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEducate%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Consists%20of%20more%20than%2010%20in-depth%20sessions%20on%20the%20metaverse%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EInspire%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Will%20showcase%20use%20cases%20of%20the%20metaverse%20in%20tourism%2C%20logistics%2C%20retail%2C%20education%20and%20health%20care%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EContribute%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Workshops%20for%20metaverse%20foresight%20and%20use-case%20reviews%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
'Moonshot'
Director: Chris Winterbauer
Stars: Lana Condor and Cole Sprouse
Rating: 3/5
