Asghar Farhadi Discusses What Motivates Him To Make Films & Themes In ‘A Hero’ – Cannes

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th District,” past Palme winner Nanni Moretti’s “Three Floors” and Bruno Dumont’s “France” (one of the few films to receive those infamous Cannes boos) among them. And that has perhaps opened the door for Ducournau, or for “Tangerine” and “The Florida Project” director Sean Baker, whose new porn-industry indie drama “Red Rocket” was said to be one of the few movies Spike Lee stood and clapped for after its screening.Still, the favorite at this point is probably Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, who has won awards at Cannes in the past but has never taken the Palme (though he does have Oscars for “A Separation” and “The Salesman”).

Iranian director Asghar Farhadi is no stranger to success at the Cannes Film Festival. While the three films of his that have premiered at Cannes haven’t won the coveted Palme d’Or, two have won other prizes at the festival.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticIn movies like “A Separation,” “The Past,” and “The Salesman,” the Iranian writer-director Asghar Farhadi has demonstrated a unique ability to take “ordinary” human situations, usually on the domestic front, and play them out in a way that is so minutely authentic yet suspenseful that they give you the sensation that life itself, if observed closely enough, is a kind of thriller. “A Hero,” Farhadi’s latest film (it’s his third to premiere at Cannes), very much wants to be a drama of that ilk.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentAsghar Farhadi, an Oscar winner for “A Separation” and “The Salesman,” is in Cannes with “A Hero,” the Iranian auteur’s fourth film to world premiere in the festival’s competition after “The Past,” “The Salesman” and Spanish-language “Everybody Knows.”“A Hero,” which sees Farhadi returning to filmmaking in Iran, is about a man named Rahim who is in prison because of an unpaid debt. While on a two-day release, he and the woman he loves hatch a plan to try and convince the creditor to let him off the hook.