One of the best thrillers of the year comes from Iran. Tehran Law won the Grand Prize and the Critics’ Prize at the Reims Polar Festival, two well-deserved awards.
Filmmaker Saeed Roustaee, a former documentary filmmaker, carried out a year of research to understand the war between police officers and delinquents in a city plagued by murderous trafficking, where any contact with drugs is punishable by capital punishment. “We never envisioned a commissioned film to the glory of the police, but to draw portraits of human beings, drug addicts, traffickers or police officers”, explains the director in the press kit.
Two different points of view
The film first takes the side of a policeman in the footsteps of a notorious trafficker before adopting the point of view of the offender. Enough to understand how a rotten system works to the core where Manichaeism has no place. Everyone is doing what they can to get by in a world dominated by drugs and money.
Saeed Roustaee’s incredibly dark vision has met the wrath of Iranian censorship. “This film was considered undesirable, we were pressured before the shooting. Once it was shot, it was the narcotics squad that sought to prevent its release, ”he recalls.
Tehran Law eventually achieved huge success in Iran. Its skin-deep suspense makes the film universal. Police raids on slums, harsh interrogations, crowded prison cells and mass executions give viewers a source of nightmares long after the lights are on.