January saw the release of the Iranian serial killer story Holy Spider. Now comes this capital-set crime movie. Make room for both on the watchlist.
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With as much in the way of social commentary as suspense, Law of Tehran follows ice-in-the-veins cop Samad Majidi (Payman Maadi) as he tries to bring down crack cocaine kingpin Naser Khakzad (Navid Mohammadzadeh). Right from the heart-in-mouth opening, writer-director Saeed Roustayi means business.
His film has been compared elsewhere to Heat, but that's more to do with the battle of wits, as there are no shootouts here. Instead, the majority of the tension is wrung out of scenes in holding cells and offices. For a film that runs for over two hours, it's surprisingly pacy. There are plenty of twists, too.
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A Separation star Maadi is excellent as the detective. He turned up in the must-see miniseries The Night Of, and it would be great to see him get more English-language roles on the back of his work here. Kudos also to Mohammadzadeh in his role as the constantly scheming adversary - a character with more fragility than we've come to expect from villains in the genre.
Law of Tehran is available on Curzon Home Cinema.
