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Rating:
Less didactic but every bit as dramatically potent as his previous film about the plight of Iranian women, The Circle, Jafar Panahi's Crimson Gold works very well both as a moving narrative feature and a powerful indictment of the inequities of a repressive Iranian theocracy. Nonprofessional lead actor Hossain Emadeddin gives a mesmerizing and spontaneous lead performance as Hussein, a seemingly good-natured pizza delivery man, who eventually goes off the deep end. Panahi opens the film by showing us the tragic outcome, then flashes back to show us the sequence of events that led Hussein to his breakdown. Panahi, working from a script by Iranian master filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, shows how Hussein's own mental instability is exacerbated by his lowly place in Tehran society. Fiercely defensive about his own worth, he's disrespected by storeowners, customers, and military personnel as he goes about trying to earn his living and preparing to be married to the sister (Azita Rayeji) of his best friend, the easygoing, but opportunistic, Ali (Kamyar Sheisi). Crimson Gold works so well in part because Panahi devotes himself first and foremost to telling Hussein's story -- which is also the story of Tehran -- and of the wide variety of people the protagonist encounters. In one telling sequence, Hussein gives his fiancée a ride home from the jewelry store on his motorbike, after having been gravely insulted (as he sees it) by the storeowner. Rayeji, frantically questions him about his foul mood, assuming that she has caused it, perhaps by momentarily lifting her veil to show him a necklace she tried on. It's clear that while Hussein will lash out, Rayeji's character has already internalized a lifetime of mistreatment. The film's sociopolitical themes are all the more powerful for being subtly expressed through a starkly realistic tale. Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

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