I hadn't heard about the plagiarism case prior to reading that article, but it seemed quite damning. Although this quote from an erstwhile collaborator makes sense:
"If you ask me—as a person who hasn’t seen either ‘A Hero’ or the documentary but just knows the guy extremely well—this is not plagiarism. Asghar is far too intelligent and interesting as an artist, as a writer, to do something like that. This is him wanting control over authorship. It’s a character flaw.”
Everyone in the article is just like "Look, I don't care that you took my idea, just acknowledge that you did it." And he won't.
― jaymc, Monday, 14 November 2022 00:55 (one year ago) link