Metri Shesh Va Nim - Just 6.5

Directed by Saeed Roustayi (Saeed Roustaee)

Cast: Payman Maadi, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Parinaz Izadyar, Farhad Aslani, Houman Kiai, Maziar Seyedi, Ali Bagheri, Marjan Ghamari, Yusef Khosravi, Mehdi Hoseini-nia, Gity Ghasemi, Asghar Piran, Mohammad Ali Mohammadi, Peymans Ghasemzadeh, Javad Pourheidari, Mostafahem Haszehi

From: Iran

Year: 2019

Author review: Roberto Matteucci

Click Here for Italian Version

"He slept with his shoes on."

The Quran strongly forbids the use of drugs, because it causes division, hatred, enmity or prevents praying to Allah. Sura 5;91:

Satan's plan is (but) to excite enmity and hatred between you, with intoxicants and gambling, and hinder you from the remembrance of Allah, and from prayer: will ye not then abstain?

Yet, some Islamic nations have prohibitive use, sale and production of drugs. One of the countries has the biggest problem is Iran.

There are, many drug addicts: two million and eight hundred thousand, a disproportionate percentage of the population:

”Last year, Iran’s interior minister said that 3 percent of the country’s population is addicted to drugs, mostly heroin. On international scale this is a high number, but not one of the highest in the world. But if the age group is narrowed to 15-64 year olds, the percentage jumps to 5.4.”

[…]

According to Aslani, more than 2.8 million Iranians use narcotic drugs regularly and, based on 2017 data, nearly 5.4% of fifteen to 64-year-old Iranians are drug addicts.” (1)

The diffusion has several motivations. One is geographical. Iran borders with the world's largest drug producer, Afghanistan. This proximity makes the price of heroin as low as two dollars per gram:

“Due to neighboring Afghanistan being the largest producer of opium, prices for heroin are extremely cheap in Iran. A gram of heroin can be bought for less than 2 U.S. dollars in Iran. In comparison, the typical price of a gram of heroin in the United States ranges from 34 dollars up to 40 dollars.” (1)

The Iranian government is trying to stop the propagation, using strong manners. The arrested culprits are hanged:

"More than 52,000 people were arrested in the first quarter of the current Iranian calendar (beginning March 21) for narcotic drugs-related crimes." (1)

An unusual topic for Iranian cinema, narrate in the film Metri Shesh Va Nim - Just 6.5 – by director Saeed Roustayi presented at the 76th Venice Film Festival.

The chief of anti-drug police in Tehran is Samad. He is tough, indefatigable in the hunt for the heads of traffic. His main purpose is to capture the main boss: Naser. With efforts and losses he succeeds. Naser and his gang will be executed at night.

Samad is a determinate character. He is unyielding, stubborn. He speaks loudly, he is nervous, the decisive and willful close-ups highlight his personality. His task is hard, he must be cruel, he must have an innate pride, he must have contempt for addicts and criminals. He can control his anger but his aversion is pessimistic and vindictive.

Naser is a violent, angry man. He has dark depressive weaknesses as demonstrated in the attempted suicide. He will be saved by his nemesis, Samad. A demoralization accentuated in the meeting with his family, before the death sentence. With his arrest, welfare, studies abroad, the home of his wife's parents and children are seized. He dies heartbroken to see their pain.

The description of the existence of drug addicts is meticulous and spectacular in inhuman cruelty.

The first raid. Long-shot, cars arrive quickly. Armed policemen jump out. The beep of the pagers, the adrenaline chase of Samad in search of a drug dealer. It is fast, aggressive, sadistic pursuit. However, the fugitive falls into a wide hole on the street. No one saw him inside and the truck fills the cavity by burying him.

The scenes are lively and choral.

The police station is frantic and messy. Even in the court, the cases are rapid and ruthless. Then, there is the prison. It is a rabble of disgusting and treacherous humanity. The cells are full of inmates, they are all standing, no space to sit, they are naked in their repellent carnality. It is the realism of the film. The addicts are numerous, they are on the fringes of society, wanted by the law, executed by the state and religion. Their physicality is bestial both in jails and in their filthy accommodations. They sleep in concrete pipes, are their dirty beds. They live among the waste and the plastic. They just go out to look for heroin or because police come. When the anti-drugs is arriving, everyone flees, creating a choreographed escape.

It is the feature of the film. The same happens at the end. Another police break-in. Hundreds people run in the middle of the road, trying to avoid traffic. An establishing-shot shows the repugnance for the wretched, no more time for them.

Realism also appears in the hanging sequence. The many executed reach the gallows when it is still dark. They realize, no more hope. They cry, scream, they wet their pants, the fear of the awareness of being dead provokes involuntary urine. The events in the scaffold are alternate with the disconsolate relatives as they pick up the corpses.

Social elements are well-defined. Including the ethical one. Good and evil are transparent, the director does not pity for drug dealers or even for their victims: the drug addicts.

The film has a linear, contiguous, clear, dynamic structure, with many episodes. There is, the impression of a work-in-progress, the story is not over.

The soundtrack is loud, the impetuous music is extradiegetic while terrifying noises are diegetic. The volume is high, as the screams of Samar and Naser.

The camera turns fast, and the dialogues are furious and realistic.

Will the police win the war? Samir surrenders, is disenchanted, has won many battles but the war is lost: "They were just 1 million drug addicts when I started as a policeman and after all these years, arresting, incarcerating, hanging, now they are 6.5 million!"

The low morality of two secondary protagonists expresses the impossibility to triumph against drugs, at least in a short while.

The first one has a funny vision. A man is looking for an excuse to get imprisoned every day. He wants to go to jail because, between that repulsive, immoral prisoners, he can sell drugs and cell phone for calls. He hides it in his anus.

Instead, painful, insensitive, it is the despicable behaviour of a father. He committed a crime and accuses his son, a young boy. He is brutal, he continues to reject his guilt. He prefers his son in prison, where he will be victim of violence. The child does not deny, his filial love is the only worthy attitude.

1. Iranian Use More Than Two Tons Of Narcotics Every Day. Radio Farda, https://en.radiofarda.com/a/iranian-use-more-than-two-tons-of-narcotics-every-day/30056090.html

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