Noted Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi has been accused of plagiarism, reported Hollywood Reporter. An Iranian court has indicted Farhadi after it found evidence that the premise of Farhadi’s latest movie A Hero has been taken from the documentary All Winners All Losers.All Winners All Losers has been made by Asghar’s former film student, Azadeh Masihzadeh. The ruling cannot be appealed and is binding, as per report. Another judge will now take a call on the director’s punishment. He may have to hand over all the income he earned from the film, both through theatres and online, to his student. There is a possibility that Farhadi might go to prison as well. The filmmaker had earlier claimed while his movie was based on the same story as his student's documentary, he had independently researched the plot.
Farhadi sued Masihzadeh for defamation and she countersued accusing Farhadi of plagiarising her original work. In an interview to ABC News, Masihzadeh had explained how she came up with the character of the film independently on the basis of the research, she did in her town of Shiraz, Iran. Farhadi’s lawyer Kaveh Rad has said that the ruling of the first judge should not be considered as the final verdict as the case is still under trial. Meanwhile, a different case has said to been filed by Mohammad Reza Shokri, a former prisoner who was the subject of Masihzadeh’s documentary, stating that Asghar’s movie A Hero has damaged his reputation. This has been dismissed by the court, according to Hollywood Reporter. The co-producer of Hero, Alexandre Mallet-Guy, has said in a statement that he is positive Asghar will emerge victorious from this court battle. A Hero had won the Grand Jury Prize, when it had earlier premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year.