CRIMSON GOLD aka TALAYE SORGH

Year: 2003
USA: Wellspring Media
UK: ICA Projects
Cast: Hossain Emadeddin, Kamyar Sheissi, Azita Rayeji, Shahram Vaziri, Ehsan Amani, Pourang Nakhayi, Kaveh Najmabadi, Saber Safael
Director: Jafar Panahi
Country: Iran
Language: Farsi (English subtitles)
USA & UK: 97 mins
UK Certificate: 12A contains one use of strong language and moderate violence
USA Release Date: 16 January 2004 (Limited Release - Los Angeles and New York)
UK Release Date: 12 September 2003 (Limited Release)
US Distributor

Synopsis

Starting from the point at which a cornered thief trapped by the security system in a Tehran jewellery store commits murder and then suicide, Jafar Panahi's groundbreaking film brilliantly unwinds to show what pushes a man to such extreme behaviour. This unsentimental but deeply emotional engaging film shows a side of urban Tehran seldom glimpsed before. Hussein (Hossain Emadeddin) is a taciturn loner, a war veteran once lauded but damaged and now working as an ageing pizza delivery boy.

A series of masterful vignettes shows Hussein's growing despair at the gap between the haves and have-nots in a ravaged society. Full of suppressed hilarity and unexpected observations, the legendary Abbas Kiarostami's script provides a stunningly eloquent and moving account of a society split between privilege and desperation. From the director of THE WHITE BALLOON and THE CIRCLE, the film won the Un Certain Regard Jury Award in Cannes 2003.