Between the Law and Desire: The Split Subject in Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero

• Published in: CINEJ cinema journal Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 311 - 334
• Main Author: Kolahjooei, Farzad
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Pittsburgh 01.12.2025
• Subjects: desire; Farhadi; Iranian cinema; Lacan; The Other; the unconscious
• ISSN: 2158-8724; 2158-8724
• DOI: 10.5195/cinej.2025.706

This paper explores Asghar Farhadi’s film A Hero from a psychoanalytic standpoint. Using a Lacanian framework, I will argue that Farhadi depicts what Lacan defines as a split subject who is under the control of the Other. The Other particularly manifests through various forms of media that define and limit the subject’s desire. The film highlights how the protagonist as the divided subject of desire moves from compliance to resistance in pursuing his desire. Such a radical movement, I will argue, takes place when the protagonist of the film reconsiders his relationship with the world around him. In his defiance of the logic of the Other and his realization that desire would not lead to an ultimate object of satisfaction, the protagonist learns how to be free even though he does not gain physical freedom.