“Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.” Iago to Cassio in Othello.
Modern Iranian society, with its challenging urban Shiraz, is the subject of auteur writer/director, Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero. At a bit over two hours, the story of a hapless sign writer and calligrapher caught in a deception spirals into one of the greatest punishments of all in Iran, loss of reputation. In this case, Rahim (Amir Jadidi) partially deserves the loss but to an excessive degree by Western standards.
The ultimate disgrace is to have his peccadillos revealed in social media, where his transgressions like dealing with a loan shark or being with a single woman leave him vulnerable to gossip and without a job. Hard enough to land work after two years in prison for the debt he can’t repay and being shamed by his debtor.
The streets and homes are narrow, no doubt in part to shield from the intense heat; such conditions can serve as figurative for the suffocating media and poverty, both of which are common in the Mideast. But then again, A Hero could be set in middle-class USA as well.
The title carries metaphoric baggage, especially with Rahim’s son, Siavish (Saleh Karimael), whose speech impediment his father uses to improve his own reputation and convince authorities of his innocence. Such moves alternately repel and ingratiate him, in no small way because he has a pleasant visage and a smile that after a while becomes sinister as he tries to get through his misfortunes and misdeeds with it.
A Hero is a slice of Iranian life whose heft is supplied by modern relentless social media reporting, a cautionary tale about anyone in any society today who tries to hide from public scrutiny. Nothing less than reputation rides on it.
“Reputation, reputation, reputation! Oh, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial.” Cassio in Othello
