THE DESPERATION OF IRANIANS PORTRAYED IN CRIMSON GOLD
How can a filmmaker suggest the need for reform by making a movie in a repressive regime that has failed to live up to promises to bring about a better life? Crimson Gold (Talaye sorkh) has found a way to do so–by recreating a true story, using nonprofessional actors, without making comments that might be perceived as editorials. The first screen of the movie asks, “What do you want?” When the action begins, Hussein (played by Hussein Emadeddin), a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war whose cortisone shots have made him fat, is attempting to rob a jewelry store, but soon a metal gate is put in place, barring him from exiting, and shortly thereafter he shoots the proprietor (played by Shahram Vaziri) and puts a gun to his head. The action, consisting of short cuts, then shifts to the days immediately before the abortive robbery. Hussein and his future brother-in-law Ali (played by Kamyar Sheissi), who deliver pizzas at night, are eating one morning at a café; a con man (played by Ehsan Amani) gives them some advice on how to be a successful thief–be professional and be honest. Ali, who has just found but not stolen a lady’s purse, hopes to find more lucrative ways to make money, as the purse contains a receipt for a very expensive necklace and a broken gold ring. Then, in a moped trip across town, they see the smart shops on the main commercial street of Tehran, selling wares that neither can afford. That night, Hussein goes to an apartment but has to walk up six floors for a measly tip. Then he has another delivery, up to the third floor, but police have cordoned off the building to arrest partygoers on the second floor as they leave the building, thus preventing him from making the delivery; he eventually shares the pizzas with those arrested, unmarried couples that have been fraternizing, as well as police, before they get cold while the police make arrests, a vigil that could last until 3 a.m., when the women will doubtless be inspected by the virginity police. Yet another weird delivery goes to the eighteenth floor of a posh apartment, where a twentysomething scion (played by Pourang Nakhael) invites him in; having ordered the pizzas for two girlfriends who decided to leave before the snacks arrive, the playboy asks Hussein to keep him company and to make himself at home. Hussein wanders around; finding a swimming pool on a lower floor, he dives in, clothes and all, and then emerges with a robe provided by his unusual host, who claims that his parents are in Los Angeles but he has returned to more familiar surroundings in Tehran, which he characterizes as a “city of lunatics.” Hussein makes three trips to a jewelry store at various points in the film. On the first occasion, to pawn the gold ring, the proprietor refuses to admit Ali and Hussein into the store because they are badly dressed and groomed. On the second visit, when Hussein seeks to buy a ring for his fiancée (played by Azita Rayeji), they are admitted because better dressed and groomed but still ignored. The last trip to the jewelry store is the scene that begins the film. In short, Crimson Gold (a title that presumably refers to the blood shed over the gold ring) demonstrates that the Iran has a rigid class structure; the wealthy few have fun, and the rest are poor with no opportunity for social mobility. For those who study Iran closely, the economic conditions of the country have declined each year since the revolution of 1979 that toppled the Shah, so the film is an indictment of all the false promises about greater prosperity for the masses under the current regime. In April 2002, the film’s director, Jafar Panahi, was humiliatingly detained and handcuffed at JFK airport for ten hours after presenting his Iranian passport because he refused to be fingerprinted and photographed. A dissident in his home country, he obviously knows a lot about the alienation that he portrays in Crimson Gold. Of course, the same film could be made in almost any big city, not just in Tehran, but once again an Iranian filmmaker is the innovator, even if the film appears to resemble the American classic, Taxi Driver (1976). MH