Overview
A pizza delivery driver confronts the stark divide between wealth and poverty in Tehran, leading to a life-altering choice.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Measured
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Moderate
- melancholic
- oppressive
- slow-burning
- serious film night
- world cinema viewing
What critics said
Critics broadly praised the film as a slow-burning, riveting, and universally acclaimed portrait of Iranian class differences.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Hussein repeatedly confronts exclusion from affluent spaces and the impossibility of affording the luxury he delivers and observes.
The lost purse, jewelry store rejection, and Hussein's final crisis connect crime directly to economic inequality and humiliation.
Hussein's motorcycle deliveries take him between poor streets and wealthy neighborhoods where he glimpses lives inaccessible to him.
Routine delivery work, repeated social insults, and encounters with conspicuous luxury gradually intensify Hussein's desperation.
Films like Crimson Gold, and why
A Separation
shared slow-burning social realism, class inequality, and morally tense crime drama
The Circle
shared Iranian social critique, economic precarity, and restrained observational drama
Bicycle Thieves
shared neorealist attention to working-class humiliation, poverty, and urban alienation
Movie Details
- Director
- Jafar Panahi
- Release Date
- 2003-09-12
- Runtime
- 96 min
- Rating
- 6.9 / 10 (105)
Cast
- Hossain Emadeddin
- Kamyar Sheisi
- Azita Rayeji
- Shahram Vaziri
- Ehsan Amani
- Pourang Nakhael
- Kaveh Najmabadi
- Saber Safael
- Yousef Panahi
- Safar Ali Moradi
Where to watch in United States
- Streaming
- Fandor, OVID, Metrograph
- Rent
- Amazon Video
- Buy
- Amazon Video
Streaming options come from TMDB and change over time.
Common questions
- What is Crimson Gold about?
- A pizza courier’s daily passage through Tehran’s wealthy districts turns class resentment and accumulated humiliation into a devastating crime drama.
- What is Crimson Gold like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Crimson Gold as measured, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.
- Is Crimson Gold violent?
- Somewhat. Ember rates the violence in Crimson Gold as moderate.
- What did critics think of Crimson Gold?
- Critics broadly praised the film as a slow-burning, riveting, and universally acclaimed portrait of Iranian class differences.
- Which films are like Crimson Gold?
- Films with a similar feel include A Separation, The Circle, and Bicycle Thieves.
- How long is Crimson Gold?
- Crimson Gold runs 96 minutes.
- Where can I watch Crimson Gold?
- In United States, Crimson Gold streams on Fandor, OVID, Metrograph.
