A Hero, written and directed by Asghar Farhadi. Starring Amir Jadidi, Mohsen Tanabandeh and Sahar Goldoost. Iran/France, 127 minutes, IIA. Opened on Thursday in Hong Kong. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Until recently, Iranian director Asghar Farhadi was best known for his uncanny ability to deconstruct modern Iran — and in many ways, other parts of the world — and provide clear, concise critiques of the social contracts we all live with. It’s been said before that the more closely a filmmaker hews to their unique experiences, the more universally recognizable those experiences become. Since his masterful 2009 breakout, About Elly, Farhadi has been shining a glaring light on the class, religious and gender dynamics that rule in Iran and very often within families, peaking (so far) with 2011’s A Separation. That film was a nuanced drama about a middle-class professional couple going through a divorce, and it stripped away the “otherness” of Iran, another Farhadi specialty. His capacity for empathy and his eye for social detail are what have made him a consistent festival favorite: he’s won the Grand Prix and the Best Screenplay Award at Cannes, two Academy Awards, as well as the Berlin Golden Bear and the Silver Bear for Best Director, among scads of other accolades.

These days, however, he’s also known for having been indicted in an Iranian court for plagiarism, following allegations by a former student that Farhadi stole the idea for A Hero from her own documentary. The case is still before the courts, with lawsuits and countersuits ongoing. It’s a shame really, because no matter who’s in the right, there’s no doubt that Farhadi has crafted another almost-perfect film, an astute and delicately provocative portrait of Iranian class friction and morality in the age of social media.

A Hero, written and directed by Asghar Farhadi. Starring Amir Jadidi, Mohsen Tanabandeh and Sahar Goldoost. Iran/France, 127 minutes, IIA. Opened on Thursday in Hong Kong. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

In A Hero, Rahim Soltani (Amir Jadidi in a performance so subtle, you barely realize he’s acting) gets out of a Shiraz debtors’ prison on a two-day pass. He spends some of the time early on with his brother-in-law Hossein, trying to figure out how to get his debt forgiven. He owes a lot of cash to Bahram (Mohsen Tanabandeh), a petty, unbending shop owner who abjectly refuses to forgive Rahim’s debt. Around the same time, Rahim’s girlfriend Farkhondeh (Sahar Goldoost) finds a bag filled with gold coins. Struck by a pang of conscience while trying to sell the coins, the essentially decent Rahim returns them to their owner. The act turns him into a hero and a media sensation, which Rahim parlays into a job and, best of all, some affection from his estranged son, Siavash. It’s here that half-truths, outright lies and fluid reality start to pile up, before catching up with Rahim.

Farhadi’s script is mired in murk: the murk of truth, the murk of the perceptions we all traffic in on a daily basis, and the murk of morality with its constant shift between right and wrong, depending on whose morals are being tested. Charities aren’t all that charitable if they don’t get glowing press coverage out of it. Rahim’s good deed seems too good to be true for some. They take pleasure in peeling back the layers to get to the fraud that must be lurking at the heart of his story. Personal agendas rule.

A Hero is ultimately one part infuriating and one part heartbreaking, with a dash of grim comedy. It is also Farhadi at his critical best. As the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished, and Rahim’s misguided attempts at living up to his sudden heroic image just make his life worse. Heroism does not pay — especially now, when indignant social media exists to tear down those good deeds after it collectively digs for missteps. As the naive and hopeful working-class prisoner at the center of it all, Jadidi is pitch perfect in making Rahim’s imperfections understandable, if not forgivable — and more than anything, intensely human.