A Man of Integrity

Reza runs a small goldfish farm in rural Iran and refuses to bow to a powerful local company that has effectively purchased the police, the courts, and every institution around him. What follows is a portrait of institutional corruption so total it becomes almost abstract — not a conspiracy but a climate, the air everyone breathes. Rasoulof makes the personal political with devastating restraint. This is a film about what it costs to remain a decent person in a system that has decided decency is a threat. My highest-rated film on this list.