Keen for a promotion, policeman Samad (Payman Maadi) is intent on taking down drug dealer Naser (Navid Mohammadzadeh).
Once he has been arrested, both men are forced to confront the inhumanity of the drug war.
I went into this movie with the wrong expectations - for some reason the plot summary made me think that it was going to be an action movie.
Instead, Just 6.5 is a more of a deep dive into the effects of a drug war. The movie shifts between the perspectives of multiple characters, with multiple motivations and contexts for their behaviour.
Those distinctions are important because of the way the movie shows the inequalities of the justice system, and the ease with which it can be manipulated. The movie also boasts a really dark sense of humour - the filmmakers recognise the ridiculousness of the situations characters find themselves in, and riddle the movie with unexpected moments of levity. There is one sequence in particular that moves from terrifying to farcical in the space of one camera tilt.
Epic in scope, yet intimate in focus, Just 6.5 would make a fine double bill with Traffic.
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