IndieWire has reached out to a number of prominent filmmakers to share the lists of their most favorite films in 2019, ranging from traditional top 10 lists to favorite moments and performances.
Among the filmmakers were Bong Joon Ho, Guillermo del Toro, Sofia Coppola, Luca Guadagnino, Lulu Wang, Bill Hader, Adam McKay, and 28 others.
This is the fourth year IndieWire has done this survey, but what is interesting about the survey this year is that an Iranian film has impressed one of the directors to be included on his list of favorite films in 2019.
Ciro Guerra, Colombian film director of “Embrace of the Serpent,” and “Birds of Passage”, named ‘Just 6.5’ by Saeed Roustayi as his third most favorite film, after ‘It Must Be Heaven’ by Elia Suleiman (Palestine), and ‘A White, White Day’ by Hlynur Pálmason (Iceland).
“It was a great year for crime thrillers, from Scorsese’s “The Irishman” to Marco Bellochio’s “The Traitor”, but what if the best one actually came from Iran? As a lifelong fan of Iranian Cinema, this one opened up a whole new world of possibility. Gripping, tense, visceral and profound,” Guerra wrote in praise of ‘Just 6.5’.
‘6.5 per meter’ is about narcotics officer Samad (Payman Moadi) who has seen his share of a drug dealer’s lies and games, and his patience has come to run thin. While searching for the infamous drug baron Nasser Khakzad (Navid Mohammdzadeh), he and his colleague Hamid scour the streets of Tehran, turning an overcrowded prison on its head. With his rough and dubious approach, Samad finally manages to find the criminal’s whereabouts – but things do not quite go according to plan.
The film won the best director award and best actor award (for Navid Mohammdzadeh) at the 32nd edition of Tokyo Film Festival in Japan this November.
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