Directed by Jafar Panahi | 97 mins | 2003
This early film by the Iranian master—a thriller in reverse, opening with the climactic jewelry store heist before flashing back to its inciting events—is lesser-known but among his best. In the central role, Hossein Emadeddin: like his character, a mentally unstable pizza delivery man. With a script by his mentor Abbas Kiarostami, "Crimson Gold" is one of the rare Panahi films to not center women, delivering instead a searing, class-inflected portrait of masculinity in crisis.