Killing Mad Dogs

Celebrated in Iran for his theater work as much as his early role in the Iranian new wave, Bahram Bayzai has cited Alfred Hitchcock as an important influence on his film work, but there’s little evidence of it in this 2001 thriller. The heroine (well played by Mozhdeh Shamsai) returns to Tehran from a trip to confront her husband for his infidelities and discovers that he’s been involved in various criminal activities, and Bayzai allows her to dispense violence with a freedom usually reserved for men in Hollywood action thrillers. This was a commercial success in Iran, not an art-house release, which makes it of interest despite a discouraging reliance on cliches. In Farsi with subtitles. 135 min. (JR)

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