The prestigious Cannes Film Festival 2022 is kick-starting on Tuesday and several celebrities have begun arriving in France for the much-awaited event. Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, who was earlier accused of plagiarising his 2021 film, A Hero, from a documentary, was also at the event as part of the jury. Taking the stage, the director took the opportunity to address the allegations and denied them.

Asghar Farhadi denies Plagiarism claims at Cannes 2022

As per a report by Variety, the director spoke about the plagiarism allegations against his film and denied all the allegations. He also mentioned he was sure the doubts would be cleared. Asghar Farhadi apologised for creating any ‘ill feeling’.

He said, “My film was not based on the documentary. I think the matter will no doubt be cleared up. And I’m sorry it has created so much ill-feeling.” This comes after the director’s former student, Azadeh Masihzadeh accused him of copying the idea from a documentary she showed him in 2014, during a workshop.

The Seperation director continued, “This documentary was something I saw at a workshop. I talked about it with the student. But much later on, I created the film ‘A Hero.’ And it cannot be viewed as a way of plagiarizing. In fact, in ‘A Hero,’ what is in the film is something quite different.”

A Hero is all about a man, who is temporarily released from jail, finding and returning a bag of gold coins. His good deed makes headlines and the police begin to suspect there is more than meets the eye. 

The Iranian court is soon expected to declare its final verdict on the plagiarism claims. A press report earlier claimed that the director was found guilty, but this information proved to be incorrect and was later rectified. According to Variety, the director addressed this as well as he attended the Cannes Film Festival 2022 as part of the jury as he said, “I hope, however, that this mistaken information that’s been written about this matter will be corrected. It has even said that I’ve been sentenced, which is wrong.”