Film Forum

Through Thursday, February 3: 12:15   2:50   8:00

Friday, February 4 through February 10: 12:15   5:30  

Winner of the Grand Prix at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, the latest film from two-time Academy Award-winning writer/director Asghar Farhadi (A SEPARATION, THE SALESMAN) is set in the stunning, historic city of Shiraz, Iran. A sign-painter and calligrapher, Rahim is on two-day leave from debtors’ prison when he’s offered an unethical opportunity to change his fate. He wards off temptation and instead commits a selfless act. But his good deed goes viral, and with more visibility, his intentions come under intense public scrutiny. A suspenseful, intricately plotted parable, A HERO showcases Farhadi’s gift for finding universal moral relevance in the particularities of Iranian society – and here dramatizes the inherent dangers of social media.

2021    127 MINS.    IRAN/FRANCE IN FARSI WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES    AMAZON STUDIOS

 Audio description is available at all shows. Headsets are available at the box office.

Reviews

“Critic’s Pick. Ingenious and engrossing. As anxious and swift as a thriller, with the density and observational acuity of a 19th century three-decker… (Farhadi) makes films with the discipline and insight of a first-rate novelist. Even incidental characters are vivid and complicated.”
– A.O. Scott, The New York Times

“(A) deliciously ironic, exquisitely complex and mysteriously stirring tale.”
– Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal

“Terrific. Comes on like a simple moral parable, then quickly reveals a more knotty philosophical design. A HERO might be his most morally, dramatically complex film since [A SEPARATION]. It has a comparable spider-web intricacy of plotting, introducing one complication after another, paying off every by-all-appearances minor detail.”
– A.A. Dowd, AV Club

“5/5 stars. Clear-eyed, precise and thrilling. Tense and thought-provoking. A superb morality play that immerses us deeply in a society’s values and rituals and keeps us guessing right to its powerful final shot.”
– Dave Calhoun, Time Out