Escaping the opium underworld is a tough business in The Persian Connection

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Today, it's being reported that Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired the North American rights to Daniel Y-Li Grove's THE PERSIAN CONNECTION, a gangster film which was previously known under the title THE LONER. The film is being billed as a neo-noir thriller set in the opium underworld of the Tehrangles section of Los Angeles, which serves at the center for former Iranian nationals and their descendants. The film stars actors  Reza Sixo Safai, Helena Mattsson, Julian Sands Parviz Sayyad, Laura Harring, Dominic Rains, Nikolai Kinski, Gregory Kasyan and Daniel Zolghadri. 

Here's the score: After two decades under a merciless Iranian mobster (played by Parviz Sayyad), Safai’s character flees the underworld to follow his American Dream of becoming a “real estate man” but after a chance encounter involving a high-stakes poker game, he is brought back into the life he left behind and accused of stealing from his former boss. He and his Russian girlfriend (Mattsson) must seek out the missing drugs as events from his past and present collide and begin spiraling way beyond their control.

In talking about the upcoming project, Peter Goldwyn, president of Samuel Goldwyn Films said, "The Persian Connection is an artistic take on a modern gangster film. Daniel’s imagining of the gritty side of Tehrangeles is a unique world from a neon lens, of which the likes you’ve never seen before." Grove will direct based on a script that he wrote himself in addition to acting as the film's executive producer. 

In researching this film, I'd found a totally NSFW clip that involved the smoking of opium followed by a vigorous round of drug-addled sexacpades. While I do have to admit that I really like the above imagary, I'm not sure that the clip was enough to get me through the door for this one. However, I did appreciate the psychdelic presentation of the footage, and there's something about a woman with bright, neon-colored hair that sets me off. Hey, everyone's got their thing, right? Beyond that, the film sounds as if it could be pretty cool provided that all of the pieces fall firmly into place in creating an intense thriller centered around drugs, deception and danger. 

THE PERSIAN CONNECTION is set for a Summer release in theaters and on demand streaming services.