The new year opens under the sign of auteur cinema: the big protagonist of the week in cinemas is «A hero», a new film by the famous Iranian director Asghar Farhadi.
After the unsuccessful Spanish interlude with «Everyone knows», Farhadi returns to his homeland and signs a film definitely in his strings, which can remember his best feature films.
Author of a real masterpiece such as “A separation” and several other important titles, such as “The past” and “The client”, Farhadi focuses in this case on the story of a man, Rahim, who finds himself in prison in due to a debt that he was unable to pay. During a two-day leave, he tries to get the creditor to drop the complaint, but things take an unexpected turn. Rahim discovers that his girlfriend has found a purse with gold coins, but he decides that this is not the way to pay off his debt. When the news spreads, he will become famous and people will raise a collection to help him. Like his other previous films, “A Hero” is also a moral drama that revolves around a single event, decisive for the entire script and capable of generating unpredictable consequences and different points of view.
A politically committed film
Presented in competition at the Cannes Film Festival 2021, where it obtained the prestigious Special Jury Grand Prix, the film stages an intense journey on ethical sense and justice, effective in involving the spectator who finds himself identifying himself and wondering if, in in the role of the protagonist, he would have made the same choices or not. Committed product, both from a civil and political point of view, “A hero” is a film that follows some narrative trajectories that they know already seen and with which Farhadi plays a quite a bit on the safe side: despite not taking great risks, however, the director confirms his excellent hand with a feature film that grows with distance and reaches its peak in the splendid conclusion. in foreign languages that will compete for the Golden Globe this Sunday: in the five Farhadi will also be confronted by Paolo Sorrentino with “It was the hand of God” and who knows if this challenge will not it will also be repeated at the next Oscars.
The King’s Man – Le origini
Among the novelties in the room there is also the third chapter of the film saga based on the Comic Book “The Secret Service” by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons. Directed by Matthew Vaugh, former director of the two previous films, “The King’s Man – The origins »Describes how the well-known intelligence agency was born, greatly expanding the historical links compared to the other feature films in the franchise. keeping the level of fun discreet. A little too overabundant in the audiovisual material, the film loses its compass in several passages and Vaughn does not always manage to give the right balance to everything, but there is no lack of noteworthy sequences and a decidedly group of actors in part: Ralph Fiennes, first and foremost.
There is only a breath of life
A mention also goes to the very interesting Italian documentary “There is a breath of life only”, signed by Matteo Botrugno and Daniele Coluccini, in cinemas from Monday. Presented at the Turin Film Festival, the film tells the life of Lucy, 95, who in his house has old photos that tell of the adolescence of a boy who at the time was called Luciano and was about to experience the most terrible period of his life. Lucy is the oldest transsexual woman in Italy, one of the few survivors of the Dachau concentration camp still alive. humanity that does not give up and is always ready to find the best way to (survive) live. A documentary that starts from historical memory to arrive at the present, simple in the staging but incisive in the contents and in everything it describes.