According to the report of Mansour Jahani, an independent and international film journalist, Asghar Farhadi, a renowned Iranian director a two-time international Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film and other prestigious international awards, cleared of plagiarism allegations regarding the film “A Hero” and this case has concluded in the filmmaker’s favor.

Branch 10 of the Tehran Provincial Court of Appeal rejected the claim which alleged that the screenplay was adapted from the plaintiff’s life story against the director of the film “A Hero”.

The legal case concerning the film “A Hero” has reached its conclusion after nearly five years; Branch 10 of the Tehran Province Court of Appeal dismissed the claim for material and non-material damages filed against Asghar Farhadi, resulting in a final ruling in the director’s favor.

Branch 10 of the Tehran Province Court of Appeal, presided over by Judge Mohsen Shariati, rejected the plaintiff’s claim seeking material and non-material damages from Asghar Farhadi, the director of the film “A Hero”, in ruling No. 9858-1405 dated April 15, 2026.

Part of the court’s ruling states: It is the lived experience and the actual course of a life that lend weight, legitimacy, and credibility to a narrative or a work of art not the other way around; a narrative or work doesn’t create the identity of that life.

Elaborating on this reasoning, the court points to the life of Mahatma Gandhi, noting: If a film or book depicts a man who liberated a nation from domination through asceticism, moral steadfastness, and a conscious renunciation of violence, that work is inevitably interpreted and judged in the light of Gandhi’s name; for his identity and stature were established in history, politics, and the moral conscience of humanity long before the creation of any such artistic work.

The ruling further emphasizes: An artistic work neither creates a life nor bestows identity upon it; rather, it serves to reinterpret a meaning that is already firmly established.

This case arose in 2021 following a complaint filed by a student from one of Asghar Farhadi’s workshops. The student alleged that the screenplay for the film “A Hero” was adapted from his documentary without permission. That documentary tells the story of a man who, while on leave from debtors’ prison, finds a bag containing gold coins and returns it to its owner.

In response, Asghar Farhadi’s lawyers stated that the screenplay for “A Hero” was based on a real-life event and media reports regarding the incident in Shiraz; they maintained that any similarities stemmed from the use of a common news source rather than an adaptation of the aforementioned documentary.

Photo By: Mansour Jahani

Credit images Mansour Jahani