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

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2025.706

Keywords:

desire, Lacan, The Other, Farhadi, the unconscious, Iranian cinema

Abstract

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.

References

Buckland, W. (2009). Puzzle Films: Complex Storytelling in Contemporary Cinema. John Wiley & Sons.

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Lacan, J. (1998). The Seminar of Jacques Lacan Book XI: The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis. (J. A. Miller, Ed.; A. Sheridan, Trans.). W.W. Norton and Company.

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McGowan, T. (2004). The End of Dissatisfaction?: Jacques Lacan and the Emerging Society of Enjoyment. SUNY Press.

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McGowan, T. (2015). Psychoanalytic Film Theory and the Rules of the Game. Bloomsbury.

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Yang, Y. (2023). Deceptive Retrospective Narrative Strategy and Synchronistic Prerequisite: Case Study on The Design of Impossible Puzzles. CINEJ Cinema Journal, 11(1), 258–288. https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2023.475

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Published

2025-05-27

How to Cite

Kolahjooei, F. (2025). Between the Law and Desire: The Split Subject in Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero. CINEJ Cinema Journal, 13(1), 311–334. https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2025.706

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 1 (2025): Winter

Section

Articles

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Copyright (c) 2025 Farzad Kolahjooei

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