Ben Affleck’s Argo won Best Picture at the Oscars in 2013. A year before, A Separation – a critically acclaimed film – won Best International Film at the Academy.
Now, its director, Asghar Farhadi, in his recent interview, called out Argo and connected its portrayal of Iran to a broader problem in Hollywood, where he said, ‘American saviour’ and simplifying complex global conflicts are in galore.
“The problem with these kinds of films in Hollywood [and] some people in the United States [is that] they look at the world from up to down,” he said while appearing at the Rio Film Festival.
“Someday you should ask them: Why do you feel you’re up and we’re down? I don’t understand why they have this ego that they’re up,” the filmmaker told Variety.
“The Iranian director then said Americans often claim to ‘have democracy’, but they don’t. “You don’t have democracy. It’s a lie.”
Farhadi did not stop there; he further criticized Argo, saying, “They make these movies for money; it’s a business.”
“And in these films it’s always a white guy from the United States saving others,” he said.
“My question is: Why? Why does an American go to Cuba or Iran to save people? People understand they can save themselves. Who asked you to come and save us?”
Argo, meanwhile, was released in 2012.
