 was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival){kind=link}
In terms of both the critical and commercial success of his films, home and abroad, Asghar Farhadi is Iran’s most successful film maker. He films have won two Oscars, the Golden Bear from the Berlin Film Festival and numerous other important awards. He himself has been nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and won the Best Screenplay at Cannes Film Festival among others. His latest film, A Hero (Gharhreman) was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Recently a documentary surfaced on YouTube called All Winners, All Losers by the young female Iranian filmmaker, Azadeh Masihzadeh. The main character and the central event in the documentary bear striking resemblances to those depicted in A Hero and Masihzadeh publicly claimed that Farhadi had used her documentary as a source of inspiration for his film, without giving her any credit. This dispute has reached Iranian courts with the judge’s verdict expected soon.
The following sequence of events and facts are accepted by both parties:
- Azadeh Masihzadeh enrolled in a workshop given by Asghar Farhadi in Iran in 2014.
- In the workshop, Farhadi instructed the students to make a documentary about people who have found money or valuables, returned it to their rightful owner and been hailed as a hero by the media.
- Farhadi taught them how to conduct their research, look at the way the media dealt with heroism, how to tell the story, and gave instructions for how to interview the subject, etc.
- Masihzadeh searched in her hometown of Shiraz and found a man who had been in prison because he couldn’t pay his divorce settlement and his wife had taken him to court. On a short furlough, he found a bag with substantial amount of money and, though tempted at first to use the money to pay some of his debt, decided to find its owner and return the money.
- Farhadi thinks that this is a suitable subject and encourages Masihzadeh to make her documentary based on this incident.
- Farhadi asks all the workshop attendees not to include his name in the credits of the films that they make at the workshop.
- Masihzadeh makes her documentary and it wins prizes at local festivals.
- Masihzadeh attends a second Farhadi workshop in 2019. After one of the classes, Farhadi asks her to stay behind and informs her that (according to the Farhadi Team), “wants to write his new screenplay based on a free interpretation of the same imprisoned man that was featured in Masihzadeh’s documentary, and in order to prevent any misunderstanding, asks her to sign a document stating the idea and structure of her documentary was discussed in the 2014 workshop and belong to Farhadi. Masihzadeh signs this document.
From then there is a difference between the two plaintiffs both on the sequence of the details and interpretation of various actions. Basically we have a He Said, She Said scenario.
The key differences are the interpretation of “idea”, “subject matter” and whether a publicly reported event can be copyrighted. The Farhadi side of the events have been published in a 17 page rebuttal in the social media under the signature of “A Hero Team”.
I talked to one of the plaintiffs in this case, Azadeh Masihzadeh. The aim was to put to her the claims made by the Farhadi side and hear her side of events. This was in no way intended to cast any doubts on the integrity of Asghar Farhadi or belittle his unique vision and considerable achievement as a writer-director. I truly believe that no other contemporary director could have made such a complex, multi-layered, thought-provoking and totally engaging film based on a simple true incident. My belief, after reading the Farhadi side and hearing the Masihzadeh side is that Farhadi made a simple oversight, which he has accepted, in not giving any credit to Azadeh Masihzadeh in his film. He has claimed that this was an unintentional oversight and I see no reason not to believe him. Masihzadeh has also claimed that a simple “Thanks to” in the credits would have been good enough for her and she would not have resorted to legal means, and I believe that too. Now, however, lawyers have been involved and this simple omission has mushroomed to a legal case which looks like a typical Farhadi script! It reminds me of an old joke where two persons have a dispute over the ownership of an oyster. They go to court and their respective lawyers agree on a settlement. Each plaintiff gets half of the oyster’s shell and the lawyers keep the oyster’s pearl as their fee!
Here’s my interview with Azadeh Masihzadeh. Her film is available on YouTube and A Hero is streaming on Amazon Prime.
Ali Moosavi, UniversalCinema Magazine (UM): When did you start working on your film, All Winners All Losers?
Azadeh Masihzadeh (AM): I attended a filmmaking workshop by Mr. Asghar Farhadi in September 2014. That was the first time I met him. The workshop was in five sessions and was devoted to documentary making. He asked us not to discuss with outsiders what we discussed in the class. Farhadi asked us to look for real life subjects who had found a sum of money, had decided to find its rightful owner, returned it and had been depicted as a hero by the media because of this good deed. Although the students had divided themselves into a number of teams, since I was travelling from Shiraz (in South Iran) to Tehran for the workshop, I decided to work on my own. With the help of a couple of my documentary maker friends in Shiraz, I found three potential subject matters for my film: A road sweeper, a taxi driver and a prisoner. An aunt of mine had seen the prisoner on local TV news. I described all three to Farhadi. He asked where the prisoner was and I told him that he was still in prison. He said that’s a pity because he wanted to film a scene in A Separation (2011) in an actual court room but couldn’t get the permit for it and added that there is no way that you would be granted permission to film inside a prison. Since another team was already making a documentary about a road sweeper, he advised me to go after the taxi driver. However, being one who takes no for an answer, I decided to follow the prisoner’s story and obtained the filming permits.
(UM): According to the “A Hero Team”, in his workshop Farhadi taught the attendees the documentary research methods and the style of narrative in documentary, asked them to look at how the media created a hero, provided instructions on how to approach the subjects and gave examples of the type of questions that should be asked from them.
(AM): That is true but the purpose of a workshop and the duty of its instructor is to help and guide the students in their ventures and be available to be consulted. That’s why we pay a fee to attend it. Many times after consulting with my instructor, I have made substantial changes to my script. Since all the documentaries being made in the workshop were going to be edited together for one piece, Farhadi’s instructions were of a general nature and to all the students to ensure a consistent approach by all.
(UM): “A Hero Team” have stated that halfway through the 2019 workshop Farhadi informed you that his next script is going to be “a free interpretation of the incident involving the prisoner in Shiraz and to avoid any misunderstanding asked you to sign a document stating that the idea and structure of her documentary All Winners All Losers was initiated at the 2014 workshop and belongs to Asghar Farhadi”. I believe this is one of the key points in your dispute.
(AM): I attended a second workshop by Farhadi on scriptwriting in 2019. After the completion of the 2014 workshop I had continuously contacted that institute to find out when the final documentary edited from all the students’ documentaries is ready to be shown publicly. In 2018 since there was still no sign of that final product, I decided to edit my own rushes and make my own standalone documentary and then sent to local film festivals. In the Shiraz Film Festival it won the Special Jury Prize. Then I sent it to a regional film festival and there it received wider publicity. The second workshop institute contacted me and informed me that the documentaries made in the 2014 workshop were being made into one documentary comprising of several episodes and my documentary will be the first episode. If I want to be included in that, I should refrain from sending a separate documentary to film festivals, otherwise my episode will be removed from the collective film. I asked if Farhadi’s name will be in the collective film’s credits and they said, yes of course. I decided to withhold sending my film to any more festivals even though one of the prominent Iranian film directors had encouraged me to send it to a national film festival.
A year later I enrolled in the scriptwriting workshop by Farhadi. After the eighth session I was asked to stay behind and see Farhadi. He took me to his personal office where his wife and his secretary were also present. There, his secretary put a piece of paper in front of me to sign. I felt nervous and hesitant, but Farhadi assured me that there were no problems with it and it was just an agreement between the two of us.
(UM): Do you remember what was written in that document?
(AM): I remember this sentence: “I, Azadeh Masihzadeh, daughter of XXX, in complete health and control of my facilities, state that the documentary XXX (Farhadi asked me to write the title of the version I received an award for) was made in the workshop tutored by Asghar Farhadi, on the basis of an idea and treatment provided by Farhadi.”
(UM): The “A Hero Team” have claimed that the documentary you showed to Farhadi was 29 minutes and after A Hero was screened in Cannes you added an additional 15 minutes with the intent of making it look more similar to A Hero and then uploaded this 44 minute version on YouTube.
(AM): The 44 minute one that I have uploaded on YouTube was originally called Act IV. To qualify for internal Iranian short film festivals, the film had to be under 30 minutes and I cut it to 29 minutes and renamed it All Winners All Losers. The 44-minute cut was edited in 2017/18.
(UM): What were the key differences between the two versions?
(AM): I really don’t remember. “A Hero Team” should watch them side by side and do this distinction. In any case I was continually submitting all my rushes to the student who was editing all the documentaries together.
(UM): Another key point in this dispute is the definition of copyright. “A Hero Team” have stated, “According to copyright laws the legal and moral ownership of subjects which have been covered publicly by media do not belong to anyone and everyone can use them either in part or as a whole in any artistic works. What is covered by copyright for documentaries is the creative depiction of the events by the documentary maker, It is plainly obvious that the film A Hero in its story and cinematic depiction bears no resemblance with the concerned documentary (All Winners All Losers). Furthermore, the second part of the documentary which concerns looking for the woman who claimed the found bag, was pursued by the student on the basis of Farhadi’s suggestion and recommendation.”
(AM): This is a legal issue which I have discussed with a lawyer specializing in copyright. What I can say is that I found the person who is the subject of my documentary. If you search the internet, you will see that there is hardly anything about him and that incident. The only time I saw the local newspaper coverage of the story was when the prisoner himself showed me the newspaper which he had kept for showing to people.
(UM): When did you first watch A Hero?
(AM): I only saw it when it was screened publicly in Iran. However, when it was premiered in Cannes, I read its synopsis and since I had signed the ownership document, I sent a link to my documentary to a few of my friends who were attending Cannes Film Festival and asked them to watch A Hero and describe it to me scene by scene. They sent me a list detailing all the similarities and differences between the two films. To ascertain all the facts, I had to watch it myself.
(UM): When the film was premiered at Cannes, what was your expectation from Farhadi? “A Hero Team” claims that your lawyer has demanded a share of the box office receipts and demanded a certain title for you to be included in the credits which has no legal or moral basis. They have also added that your endeavors in 2014 were mistakenly not credited in the film and they had offered to include your name as Researcher in the credits but then you changed your mind.
(AM): At the time of Cannes screening even a simple “Thanks to” in the end credits would have more than satisfied me and I would have never proceeded with any legal complaints. I would have been elated. I would have boasted to all my friends that I have a credit in a Farhadi film. I had asked my friends at Cannes to carefully scrutinize the end credits to see if there is any mention of my name.
But what I want now is very different. A simple “Thanks to” won’t do. I expect the credits to say “inspired by the documentary All Winners All Losers by Azadeh Masihzadeh”. I have suffered mentally from a barrage of attacks in the social media. The ethical approach by Farhadi would have been to have told me that he likes my documentary and wants to make a film inspired by it. I would have freely given him total permission to use as much of it as he wanted.