The Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, who has won two Oscars, had a cutting remark about Hollywood’s habit of sending white Americans to save the world. He delivered it during the Rio Film Festival while presenting his new film Parallel Tales. Farhadi’s target was Argo, the Ben Affleck film that claimed Best Picture just a year after A Separation walked away with Best International Film at the Oscars.
At the time, Farhadi watched Argo and described it as a “Hollywood thing.”. The film follows Affleck playing a Latino exfiltration specialist who pretends to be a Hollywood producer to rescue six Americans held captive in Tehran during the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran. Farhadi noted that the film portrays Iran “like you’re in hell.”.
“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 added. “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 Iranian director then said Americans often claim to “have democracy,” but he disagrees. “You don’t have democracy. It’s a lie.”
Farhadi’s Question About Argo
The director recalled spending time in the U.S. a few years ago while working on a project. During research, he travelled to San Francisco to speak with incarcerated men. “I met some people in prison who are Black, [some who come] from other countries, and the real America was there. But people in the world don’t see that part of the United States.”
“I have this problem when they feel they are up and they think, ‘[others] should be like us,'” he continued. “Even if it’s in a good way and they want to be kind to you, they wish ‘one day you’ll become like us,’ and no, I don’t want to.”
Farhadi spoke while still on Argo about films like it, saying they “are not deep.” “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. 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?”.
Politics in Farhadi’s Own Films
Asked about how he handles politics in his work, Farhadi said that “whenever you talk about society, you are talking about politics.” “Even when you talk about family life, their relationships, their difficulties and problems, indirectly you are talking about politics. In my films, I always try not to talk about politics directly because, to me, that is a bit far from cinema. The cinema that I believe is the kind of cinema that gives space to audiences to discover things about themselves.”
He brought up Abbas Kiarostami’s Fellow Citizen (“Hamshahri”) as Iran’s “most political film.” The 1983 documentary follows drivers across the streets of the Iranian capital. “He made a documentary about car drivers in Tehran, but when you see people, the way they talk to the police, the layers are very political,” Farhadi said.
He added that “Media and cinema don’t give you a complete image of people’s ordinary life,” and “But the thing about empathy is that, all around the world, people are similar to each other. Cinema is based on hate and love. And [when it comes to] hate and love, everywhere is the same. A love between a mother and child in Brazil, in Tehran, is the same. The way they express it is different, but the core is the same.”.
When Farhadi watches a Brazilian film, he said, he soon forgets he is watching a story from another place in the world, and feels it is a “film about us” as people. “If one day people can travel to other countries, and if they shake hands, that’s the best way to know people, not through media. I don’t believe media can give us the whole image.”
| Film | Director | Setting |
|---|---|---|
| A Separation | Asghar Farhadi | Iran |
| Argo | Ben Affleck | Tehran |
| Fellow Citizen (“Hamshahri”) | Abbas Kiarostami | Tehran |
The Current Climate
The director spoke briefly about his upcoming work, restating that it will be filmed in his native tongue, Farsi. When questioned if the film would address the present war in Iran and the fighting in Palestine, Farhadi responded with “Not directly,” indicating that the current political atmosphere may leave a subtle mark on the story even though it is not its main subject.
The director also recalled how Parallel Tales was supposed to be shot in the U.S. “I stayed there for three years, writing, searching, casting. I did casting in the U.S. with American actors, very big names. But every day that I came back to my home, I told myself: I cannot connect with this. Something is wrong. It was a big problem. One night I decided to change.”
The decision to shift the film’s setting to France and move production overseas came from him. He described it as “not an easy decision,” though he also noted that “the DNA of this film is more European than American.”.
As for the starry cast that includes Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira and Vincent Cassel, Farhadi said he sent the script to “select names” upon arriving in France, and he was “so lucky” because all of them immediately said yes. Still, when he goes to set, he doesn’t “think about names.” “All of them are my team, my family, my actors. It doesn’t matter if it’s a big name or not. The way I work is the same, and they like it.”
The Rio Film Festival runs October 1-11.
Farhadi’s Refusal to Let Hollywood Portray From a Pedestal
Farhadi bases his point on a plain observation: the white savior story is a business choice, not a moral one. He has no problem with the idea that Americans can assist people in distress — his objection is to the assumption that they must be the ones carrying it out.
His question is blunt. “Why does an American go to Cuba or Iran to save people?” he asks. “People understand they can save themselves. Who asked you to come and save us?”
The Limits of Empathy
A mother’s love in Brazil and Farhadi’s broader argument about empathy is worth holding onto. He says that hate and love are universal, even when their expression differs. A mother”s love for her child in Tehran share the same core, even though the ways they express it differ.
It offers a strong correction to how the media tends to treat foreign cultures as something strange and apart. It also points to how cinema, when it works well, can close those distances between people. Farhadi’s own films, he says, aim to let audiences find truths about themselves rather than being told what politics mean.
The Bottom Line
Farhadi refuses to let Hollywood look down upon the world from a pedestal, instead confronting the American white savior myth head-on. He poses his question with warmth rather than malice, seeking understanding rather than condemnation.
The question is independent. What makes an American travel to Cuba or Iran to rescue people? Who invited you here to rescue us?
The Rio Film Festival continues through October 11.
Source material: “Asghar Farhadi Says Films Like ‘Argo’ Perpetuate American White Savior Myth: ‘Who Asked You To Come and Save Us?’,” Variety.
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