Amir drives through Tehran at night, dealing drugs and talking to the users, prostitutes, pimps, people in pain and other troubled souls. With his dog, he contemplates his loneliness and his, and his country’s, future.

Amir faces the monotony of work like anyone else. But in this case, he’s a nocturnal drug dealer, embracing Tehran’s invisible and impotent counterculture as an act of resistance. Director Ali Ahmadzadeh’s powerful and controversial film was shot in secret in Tehran, and used only amateur actors. A cry of defiance, Critical Zone has won praise around the world, but has also resulted in Ahmadzadeh being pressured by Iran’s Ministry of Security to withdraw the film from festivals, and in his being denied work in Iran.

“Ahmadzadeh’s impressive feat of creative rebellion is also a timely reminder that such a miracle should never be taken for granted.” –David Robb, Slant