A Hero (Iran) (14/24)

Iranian director Asghar Farhadi has won the Oscar for Best International Feature twice since 2010: once for A Separation in 2011 and then again for The Salesman in 2016. And while he didn’t win for A Hero, I’d argue that it’s some of his best work. Last year’s Oscar short-listed title follows a man who thinks his ticket out of debtors prison is a purse full of cash his girlfriend finds. But a fairly simple act goes awry very quickly and threatens to leave him worse off than he started. The intricately subtle set of moral quandaries at this film’s center are as terrifying as they seem insignificant, and watching Amir Jadidi act his way through them is mesmerizing. Farhadi has been in the news lately as a prominent Iranian figure speaking out in support of the people of Iran, and his films paint a nuanced portrait of life in his country that we don’t often see in the US.