Award Winning Iranian Film CRIMSON GOLD to Feature at Visions Cinema in Washington, D.C.

Award Winning Iranian Film CRIMSON GOLD to Feature at Visions Cinema in Washington, D.C. Visions Bar Noir announces the exclusive opening of Cannes film festival winner CRIMSON GOLD on February 6th. Directed by the esteemed Jafar Panahi and written by award winning Abbas Kiarostami, CRIMSON GOLD is an intimate and absorbing drama about the ways in which the hypocrisies and slights of daily life can push otherwise reasonable people over the edge. Told through Hussein, a humble, troubled pizza deliveryman who feels continually humiliated by the injustices he sees all around him, Crimson Gold is a story about class differences and class relations in a totalitarian world. Opening with a four-minute, camera-steady shot, the film follows a gun-toting Hussein taking over an upscale jewelry shop, killing the shop owner, and then shooting himself. This grisly scene sets the story for a re-examination of the events that led Hussein to this destructive explosion. Played by real life pizza deliveryman Hussein Emadeddin, who also suffers from schizophrenia, the story was based on real life newspaper headlines, which was then developed into a working screenplay. "As a filmmaker, when I heard what happened it struck me and I had to do something about it." says filmmaker Panahi, "we were going to [director Abbas] Kiarostami's photographic exhibition. When he told me what happened, I could not stay at the exhibition any longer and I felt I had to do something." That something evolved into the Cannes festival winner, CRIMSON GOLD. Behind this headline lies the story of a desperate man's feelings of humiliation in a world of social injustice. When his friend Ali finds a receipt for a stranger's necklace purchase, Hussein is stunned by its exceptionally high cost. He knows that his pitiful salary will never be enough to afford such a luxury. Soon after, he and Ali are refused entry to an uptown jewelry store because of their scruffy appearances; his rage over this slight sets off a series of events, which ultimately leads to a shocking act of violence. Panahi uses Hussein's job as a delivery driver to move inside houses and behind closed doors to reveal places rarely seen by western audiences; what emerges is both a daring interrogation of Iranian society and a universal tale of urban alienation and inequality. Director Panahi says, "Inequality exists in every country of the world. But a certain point can be reached...there is no middle class anymore, because of wrong political decisions or economical problems. And then the gap between poor and rich gets bigger, and that's how it is right now. That causes violence and aggravation. And the various people who are struggling with this problem react differently. Hussein was not a thief; if he had been, he would have stolen from the rich man. He wanted to defend his humanity against humiliation. We don't want to say whether it's right or wrong. But we say that's how it is."   Since directing his 1996 prizewinner, The White Balloon, Panahi has enjoyed much U.S. exposure and critical acclaim. His film The Circle won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2000. An unsettling drama about the social dilemma of several modern Iranian women was named Fipresci's Film of the Year and appeared on top 10 lists of critics worldwide.  The White Balloon, also written by Kiarostami, won the Camera d'Or winner at the Cannes Festival in 1995. CRIMSON GOLD will open at Visions on February 6th. Tickets for all shows are $9.00 or $7.00 for Seniors, Military and Students with valid ID. $6.00 matinee's are offered for the first show each day. Tickets are available on site at Visions only. Visions/barnoir is conveniently located at the crossroads of Adams Morgan and Dupont Circle. at 1927 Florida Avenue, NW.   For information visit www.visionsdc.com or www.bar-noir.com.  You can also contact Heather Huston at Visions Cinema, 202.232.5663 or heather@visionsdc.com. *************************************************************** Dir: Jafar Panahi Iran, 2003, 97 mins In Farsi with English Subtitles "Jafar Panahi's film exposes the cruelties and inequities of a society sharply polarized by class and corrupted by selfishness, snobbery and cynicism." -- A.O. Scott, NEW YORK TIMES "A deceptively modest undertaking that brilliantly combines unpretentious humanism and impeccable formal values." -- J. Hoberman, VILLAGE VOICE "Panahi's class-conscious storyline may be infuriatingly minimalist, but it's held together by a quietly subversive willingness to question the dead-end frustrations of life under totalitarianism." -- Jamie Russell, BBCI FILMS "Hot enough to have been banned in its home country, and resonant enough to command our watchful participation." -- Jan Stuart, NEWSDAY "One of the best films at Cannes and quite likely one of the best films of the year! With an unexpectedly touching lead performance, the film vividly recalls Hollywood film noirs of the 1940s and 1950s" - Manohla Dargis, LA Times For more information, click here: http://www.visionsdc.com/dyno/filmdetail.asp?filmID=339