As always, I leaned towards “Crimson Gold” with caution. Dozens of reviews told me that this film is excellent and that I should not even worry about the possibility of an overrated mess. Even when I know that some pundits are generally right, I still feel the lack of that overprotective marketing machine that covers us with millions spent in advertising for a mindless summer blockbuster. But I said to myself, lets watch some minutes, and if your mood today is not up to the task, we'll let this film for a later date. And then "Crimson Gold" started.
The first scene is nothing short of masterful, gripping the viewer into a tense stare of an unstoppable downwards situation. Hussein, the low-class pizza delivery-man, is trying to assault the smug jewelry store manager. As Hussein bland his weapon from side to side, we fear for the jeweler as we strangely (because we don’t know him yet) fear for him. The way in which he talks and the way in which the jeweler resists transports the viewer immediately to all those terrible assault denouements in crime-ridden cities around the world.
From there, we go back with Hussein to the lasts days of his journey, observing how the pizza man travels the roads between class divisions in Iran, controlled also by the morality police. Each episode brings him closer to the realization of his place in society. Is not that he did not know that he was poor, but by comparison with other people, he (and we) come to the conclusion that only a desperate act can extricate yourself from indignity. Hussein is far from being alone, and is loved by everyone around him. Everyone in his class, of course. It takes one slight act of disdain from the jeweler, a man that seems to think that he is above Hussein, to start the slow fire that will make his blood boil.
The last episode is frightening and coherent. Hussein is invited by a rich lad that came back from the US to eat with him in his apartment. But what apartment! From room to room, Hussein discovers all the luxuries he is denied, luxuries that are owned by people that are not even interested in enjoying them, and leave Hussein and his friends to deteriorate under a theocracy that could care less, except to forbid all kinds of life enjoyment (that yes, are related to activities shared with the opposite sex). And I still found myself frighten of Hussein, of a change in temper that would make him steal something to this guy or something worst (thus confirming the view of his class as a bunch of criminals). After all, Hussein received a masterclass in thievery earlier on.
But as his teacher in that conversation said: "If you want to arrest a thief, you'll have to arrest the world". Who is the thief in this story? As Hussein seems to have been robbed of his life, that question does not have an obvious answer.
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