Combines the vérité grit of The French Connection with the physical slapstick of Buster Keaton. Really. It’s a deliberately bewildering cocktail of brutal tragedy and gallows farce that runs throughout this very arresting feature.

It’s an exquisitely tense and perfectly played tale of a hardbitten copper, Samad, and his dogged pursuit of the slippery drug lord Naser.

If Michael Mann made a movie in Iran it might look like this: a ferocious drama-thriller in which a haunted, morally ambiguous cop faces off with a despairing drug lord.

The film's opening and closing moments are breathtaking, and amid the gut-punch set pieces are fresh performances from supporting actors that deliver real emotional heft.