Asghar Farhadi to line up new film, heading to Berlin market

Twice Oscar-winning director and screenwriter Asghar Farhadi is to embark on new film production soon.  

‘The Salesman’ and ‘A Separation’ director after Cannes opener ‘Everybody Knows’ with Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem will make a return to Iran and his native language with ‘A Hero’.

The Farsi-language ‘A Hero’ will enter pre-production in two months and is due to shoot in the Iranian province of Shiraz this summer.    

Plot details for ‘A Hero’ have been kept under wraps for the time being. However, the drama is reported to be suspenseful and that the director will be working with well known Iranian actors who have not worked with him before.  

Farhadi is producing the film together with Alexandre Mallet-Guy of Memento Films, which has made Farhadi’s last three films.  

Paris-based Memento Films Distribution will also launch ‘A Hero’ world sales next week at the European Film Market (EFM) in Berlin, where it is anticipated to be among the most prized arthouse projects in the market.

An English-language version of the script will be made available to buyers this week ahead of the EFM.

Iran great director won his first Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film with 'A Separation' in 2012.

In 2017, 'The Salesman' brought him the second Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Farhadi’s latest film 'Everybody Knows' premiered at 2018 edition of the Cannes Film Festival.

Farhadi, who the New York Times has called Iran’s greatest director, is one of only six filmmakers to win the international Oscar multiple times, and he is the only director to have achieved the feat since the early 1980s.

When ‘The Salesman’ won the foreign language Oscar in 2016, Farhadi declined to attend the event in protest at Trump’s travel ban.

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