The Warden

Nima Javidi's 2019 Iranian film is a closed-space thriller set in southern Iran in 1967. An old prison is being evacuated because it sits too close to the city's new airport, and the warden, Major Nemat Jahed, and his officers are moving the inmates to the new building; when the transfer is complete, one man is missing from the count, and the search of the empty building begins. From there the film becomes an almost single-location hunt. Javidi's interest lies less in the escaped prisoner than in the warden's calculations about his career: he is expecting a promotion, he is about to marry, and having this on the record would end everything. Navid Mohammadzadeh turns bureaucratic fear into physical tension. The use of the emptied prison building and the period design show a production care not often seen in Iranian cinema. Who it's for: viewers who like Iranian cinema, single-location thrillers and stories of institutional moral collapse. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a fast-moving thriller, or who will feel the romantic thread was forced into the story.