Farhadi Slams 'Argo' As White Savior Fantasy, Questions Hollywood's Ego
At the Rio Film Festival, Iranian director Asghar Farhadi took aim at Hollywood's portrayal of foreign cultures, specifically calling out Ben Affleck's Oscar-winning film 'Argo'. Per Variety, Farhadi said such movies perpetuate a myth of American superiority and rescue.
He described 'Argo', which is about a CIA operation to extract Americans from Tehran, as a 'Hollywood thing' that looks at the world 'from up to down'. Farhadi questioned the underlying assumption, asking why Americans feel they are 'up' and others are 'down'.
The director argued these narratives are shallow commercial products. He pointed out a recurring theme where a U.S. citizen is the hero in another country. Farhadi challenged this trope, asking why Americans feel the need to travel to places like Iran or Cuba to be saviors, suggesting people are capable of handling their own affairs.
Farhadi also critiqued American democracy as 'a lie', citing his own experiences visiting prisons in the U.S. as revealing 'the real America'. He emphasized that media and cinema often fail to show the ordinary, empathetic lives of people globally.
When discussing politics in his own work, Farhadi told the festival he prefers to address societal issues indirectly through family and relationships, believing that approach is more cinematic and allows audience discovery.
