The interpretation of artistic and literary works through mythological frameworks has generated diverse methodological approaches over the past two centuries. Traditions such as natural mythology, allegorical mythology, and mythography have each been deployed according to the epistemological paradigms of their respective eras. Among these, the French mythologist Gilbert Durand developed a systematic method for studying artistic works, which he termed “mythocritique” (myth criticism or myth-critical analysis). This approach transcends intratextual analysis by incorporating social, historical, and cultural contexts, examining relationships between the text and its transtextual framework, ultimately identifying the artist’s personal myth and its extension to a transpersonal myth at the societal level. The primary research problem of this study is to identify and elucidate the mechanisms through which myths and collective archetypes operate within the narrative and semantic structure of Asghar Farhadi’s cinematic works, as well as their function in representing contemporary social issues. The aim is to apply Durand’s myth-critical method to analyze the hidden mythical layers in Farhadi’s cinema, explain the connection between his personal myth and collective archetypes, and assess its potential for generalization to the societal level and to the works of other artists. The present study is qualitative in nature and based on Gilbert Durand’s myth-critical analysis approach. The research corpus encompasses all of Asghar Farhadi’s cinematic works, and the research sample was selected purposefully. Data were collected through library research, consulting relevant books, articles, and dissertations, as well as through the viewing and analysis of the films. A descriptive-analytical method was employed for data analysis, utilizing Durand’s seven-stage myth-critical framework. The first stage involved selecting the most significant work and identifying its embedded mythemes. Based on critical reception, festival jury decisions, and audience feedback, A Separation was chosen as the representative work. Through detailed analysis, mythemes were identified at three levels: formal, content-based, and contextual. These included motifs such as separation, lying, concealment, death, journey, court, family, oath, child, city, religious beliefs, the film’s title, Termeh, window, Qur’an, and the green scarf. Each functioned as the smallest meaningful units of myth within the narrative structure. In the second stage, after identifying the mythemes, the relational network among them was examined. Based on frequency of occurrence, role in the plot, and influence on narrative structure, “lying” was identified as the focal mytheme in A Separation. In this film, lying is not a peripheral element but rather the driving engine of the narrative and the primary factor in the formation of crises and narrative complications. The third stage determined the fundamental characteristics of lying in A Separation: first, lying as a defensive strategy to cope with social and legal pressures; second, the inability of lying to resolve crises—lies not only fail to reduce tensions but actually deepen personal and familial crises; and third, the contradiction between intention and consequence, whereby even well-intentioned white lies lead to negative and crisis-inducing outcomes. In the fourth stage, the mytheme of lying was correlated with Asghar Farhadi’s personal and professional biography. Examination of his interviews and professional controversies revealed that Farhadi has encountered patterns of concealment and white lies in several instances, such as disputes over authorship of the play Mashin-Neshinhá (The Car-Sitters) with Ali Khodsiani, the matter of secret smoking, and the accusation of idea theft for the film A Hero. Furthermore, lying recurs in his other works, including Dance in the Dust, Beautiful City, Fireworks Wednesday, About Elly, The Past, The Salesman, Everybody Knows, and A Hero. A comprehensive analysis of motivations, consequences, and types of lies across each film demonstrated that protective and self-interested lies consistently lead to the collapse of human relationships and moral crises. In the fifth stage, existing mythical narratives corresponding with Farhadi’s personal myth (lying) were examined. Five were studied: Jamshid, Rostam and Sohrab, Sudabeh and Siavash, Othello, and Medea. In the Jamshid narrative, lying manifests at the level of power and society, leading to the loss of divine glory (farreh). In Sudabeh and Siavash, lying serves as a tool for revenge and status preservation, rupturing the father-son relationship. In Othello, lying operates as a psychological and destructive force. In Medea, lying begins with Jason’s betrayal and initiates a cycle of deception. Following analysis, the story of Rostam and Sohrab from Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh was selected as the pattern most congruent with Farhadi’s personal myth, because in both, lying and concealment are not individual acts but rather tragic factors that dismantle the foundation of the family. In the sixth stage, an intermythic study was conducted based on the selected narrative, identifying relationships with other homologous myths. It was determined that the character Nader in A Separation occupies a structural position similar to that of Rostam. Both face a critical moment in which they have the opportunity to tell the truth, yet consciously choose concealment. The difference lies in the outcome: in the Shahnameh, the tragedy culminates in Sohrab’s physical death, whereas in Farhadi’s film, it leads to the “moral death” of Termeh. At the beginning of the film, Termeh is an innocent child, but throughout the narrative, she gradually enters the cycle of lying and offers false testimony in court to defend her father. This event marks a turning point in her moral development and demonstrates that lying, as a cultural pattern, is transmitted intergenerationally. In the seventh stage, a transtextual study was conducted within the semantic field pertaining to Farhadi’s works to determine whether his personal myth (the white lie) can be generalized to the societal level and to the works of other artists. The meta-narrative of Rostam and Sohrab in the Shahnameh demonstrates that Rostam, through his concealment, exemplifies the “white lie” whose consequences are tragic and crisis-inducing, leading to the collapse of the family foundation. In Persian literary texts, a distinction is also made between the “white lie” and the “sedition-inducing lie”, as Saa’di emphasizes in Golestān: “An expedient lie is better than a sedition-inducing truth.” The results indicated that Farhadi’s personal myth is not confined to a single work or individual; rather, on a broader level, it reflects the Zeitgeist and the cultural-historical paradigm of Iranian society. The pattern of “expedient concealment” is deeply rooted in Iranian society and is reproduced through everyday behavioral patterns, social structures, and even formal institutions. At the level of family relationships, this pattern manifests as “concealment to maintain appearances”, which official statistics identify as a significant factor contributing to the increase in emotional divorce and the decline of trust within families. At the societal level, it appears as a “duality between official discourse and everyday life” and “self-censorship” Its consequences can be observed in declining public trust, increasing collective anxiety, and the rupture of human bonds. This pattern is also observable in the works of other contemporary Iranian directors, such as Sa’ādatābād (Maziar Miri), Ghesseh-há (Rakhshan Banietemad), Melbourne (Nima Javidi), and Rahā (Hesam Farahmand). Ultimately, this study demonstrated that “lying” is the focal mytheme in Asghar Farhadi’s cinema, and that his personal myth is connected to the narrative pattern of “Rostam and Sohrab” in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh. This myth, derived from Rostam’s act of concealing the truth of his identity from Sohrab, is not confined to a single work or individual; rather, on a broader level, it reflects the Zeitgeist and the cultural-historical paradigm of Iranian society. From this perspective, the “white lie” is not a personal theme but rather a cultural pattern deeply rooted in the Iranian collective unconscious, one that is reproduced across various artistic media and social relations, and that holds the potential for generalization to the works of other filmmakers and artists. The tragic dimension of the myth serves as a warning that lying, even with good intentions, is not a risk-free strategy, and its ultimate outcome may escape individual control and exacerbate personal, familial, and social crises. The findings further demonstrate that myth-critical analysis, as a method of cultural analysis, can serve as an effective tool for identifying deep-seated intellectual and behavioral patterns in artistic works, and can contribute to a better understanding of the complex interactions among art, myth, and society.