Oscar Winning Director, Asghar Farhadi, accused of Plagiarism!
- Asghar Farhadi is a top Iranian director famous for his international works.
- His films mostly focus on human conditions and internal family conflicts.
- Farhadi is to appear in court following the complaint.
- The director denies the accusations.
Asghar Farhadi is an internationally acclaimed director known for movies like Everybody Knows, and Beautiful City.
Who accused the Academy Award winner of plagiarism?
Asghar Farhadi is one of the fewest directors to win the Best Foreign Film more than once. He won the Oscars for his incredible performance in A Separation and The Salesman. The director has a great star cast in his films. Women, especially have important roles to play.
A former student, Azadeh Masihzadeh sued the director for using stories from her documentary All-Winners All Losers. She said the director did it without giving her credit.
Azadeh claimed that she made the documentary for a film class which the director later used for his 2021 hit film The Hero.
According to Hollywood Reporter, the student brought the case only after Farhadi sued her for a defamation case. Surprisingly, the court ruled both times in Azadeh‘s favor.
This plagiarism case will go to a second judge who will decide whether or not Farhadi is guilty of the accusations.
You may like to read Cover story! Oscar-winning actress Rachel Weisz talks about her marriage to Daniel Craig and the aging process!
Will Asghar Farhadi win or lose the battle of Plagiarism?
Asghar Farhadi strongly denies the accusations and said the whole story was based on his independent research. The producer of the film A Hero, Alexandre Mallet-Guy released a statement over the plagiarism issue.
He said:
“We firmly believe that the court will dismiss Ms Masihzadeh who cannot claim ownership on matters in the public domain.”
Farhadi‘s lawyer, Kaveh Rad, said that the case investigator has denied the charges made by the student. He informed me that the case is under observation and the accusations are baseless.
However, media houses claim that the documents and reasons Azadeh provided are alone enough to bring the case in her favor.
Rad said he hopes that the case goes under the observation of the opinions of professors and experts in the field of copyright.
Asghar Farhadi’s short biography
Asghar Farhadi was born on January 1, 1972, in Iran. Interestingly, Farhadi had a great interest in films since his teenage years.
His first directorial debut was Dancing in the Dust. He studied drama at the University of Tehran and earned a master’s degree in theatre from Tarbiat Modares University in 1998.
Farhadi‘s wife is Parisa Bakhtavar and has two children Sarina and Saaghar.