B
**Summary**: 8/10: A potent diagnosis of corruption's corrosive effects anchored by powerful performances from Reza Akhlaghirad and Soudabeh Beizaee; patience through the deliberately suffocating first half pays off with a third act that refuses false comfort in favor of hard truths. Director Mohammad Rasoulof understands the cost of integrity. In 2011, he was sentenced to six years in prison and handed a 20-year ban on filmmaking for alleged anti-regime propaganda. In 2017, Iranian authorities confiscated his passport. In 2024, he was sentenced to flogging and more prison; but he fled I…
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