Ranking All Of Director Jafar Panahi’s Movies
“What are Jafar Panahi’s Best Movies?” We looked at all of Panahi’s directed filmography and ranked them against one another to answer that very question!
We took all of the movies directed by Jafar Panahi and looked at their Rotten Tomato Critic, Rotten Tomato User, Metacritic, Metacritic User, IMDB, and Letterboxd scores, ranking them against one another to see which movies came out on top. The movies are ranked in our list below based on which movies have the highest overall score between all 6 review sites in comparison with all of the other movies by the same director. The process is all very scientific with no flaws at all.
The full ranking chart is also included below the countdown on the bottom of the page.
Happy Viewing!
The Top Film’s Of Jafar Panahi
11 ) The Accordion (2010)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 9
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 9
- Metacritc Critic Score: 8
- Metacritic User Score: 5
- IMDB User Review Score: 10
- Letterboxd User Score: 9
A couple of children earn their living by playing music on the streets of Teheran. But a thief steals their accordion.
Purchase / Learn More
 |
10 ) Untying the Knot (2007)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 9
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 9
- Metacritc Critic Score: 8
- Metacritic User Score: 5
- IMDB User Review Score: 6
- Letterboxd User Score: 11
Jafar Panahi’s short film, shot with one uninterrupted long take, about siblings trying to sell a carpet in need of money.
Purchase / Learn More
|
9 ) Closed Curtain (2013)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 9
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 9
- Metacritc Critic Score: 5
- Metacritic User Score: 4
- IMDB User Review Score: 11
- Letterboxd User Score: 8
A man, his dog, a young woman and a filmmaker in a house by the Caspian Sea. All three are wanted, but they are also in search of each other. Thus begins an absurd game in which reality and fiction merge.
Purchase / Learn More
|
8 ) Three Faces (2018)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 7
- Metacritc Critic Score: 7
- Metacritic User Score: 5
- IMDB User Review Score: 9
- Letterboxd User Score: 9
Well-known actress Behnaz Jafari is distraught by a provincial girl’s video plea for help—oppressed by her family to not pursue her studies at the Tehran drama conservatory. Behnaz abandons her shoot and turns to filmmaker Jafar Panahi to help solve the mystery of the young girl’s troubles. They travel by car to the rural northwest where they have amusing encounters with the charming folk of the girl’s mountain village. But the city visitors soon discover that the protection of age-old traditions is as generous as local hospitality…
Purchase / Learn More
|
6 ) The Circle (2000)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 6
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 4
- Metacritc Critic Score: 3
- Metacritic User Score: 5
- IMDB User Review Score: 4
- Letterboxd User Score: 6
Various women struggle to function in the oppressively sexist society of contemporary Iran.
Purchase / Learn More
|
6 ) Offside (2006)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 5
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 6
- Metacritc Critic Score: 3
- Metacritic User Score: 1
- IMDB User Review Score: 7
- Letterboxd User Score: 6
Since women are banned from soccer matches, Iranian females masquerade as males so they can slip into Tehran’s stadium to see the game between Iran and Bahrain. The ones who are caught and arrested are taken to a holding area and guarded by soldiers. One sympathetic soldier agrees to watch the game through a peephole and recount the action to the impatient fans.
Purchase / Learn More
|
5 ) The White Balloon (1995)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 8
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 1
- Metacritc Critic Score: 8
- Metacritic User Score: 5
- IMDB User Review Score: 1
- Letterboxd User Score: 2
Several people try to take advantage of a little girl’s innocence to hustle money her mom gave to her to buy a goldfish with.
Purchase / Learn More
|
4 ) Crimson Gold (2003)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 7
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 3
- Metacritc Critic Score: 5
- Metacritic User Score: 5
- IMDB User Review Score: 2
- Letterboxd User Score: 2
For Hussein, a pizza delivery driver, the imbalance of the social system is thrown in his face wherever he turns. One day when his friend, Ali, shows him the contents of a lost purse, Hussein discovers a receipt of payment and cannot believe the large sum of money someone spent to purchase an expensive necklace. He knows that his pitiful salary will never be enough to afford such luxury. Hussein receives yet another blow when he and Ali are denied entry to an uptown jewelry store because of their appearance. His job allows him a full view of the contrast between rich and poor. He motorbikes every evening to neighborhoods he will never live in, for a closer look at what goes on behind closed doors. But one night, Hussein tastes the luxurious life, before his deep feelings of humiliation push him over the edge.
Purchase / Learn More
|
3 ) This Is Not a Film (2011)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 3
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 8
- Metacritc Critic Score: 2
- Metacritic User Score: 3
- IMDB User Review Score: 4
- Letterboxd User Score: 2
It’s been months since Jafar Panahi, stuck in jail, has been awaiting a verdict by the appeals court. By depicting a day in his life, Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb try to portray the deprivations looming in contemporary Iranian cinema.
Purchase / Learn More
|
2 ) Taxi (2015)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 4
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 4
- Metacritc Critic Score: 1
- Metacritic User Score: 2
- IMDB User Review Score: 7
- Letterboxd User Score: 2
A yellow cab is driving through the vibrant and colourful streets of Tehran. Very diverse passengers enter the taxi, each candidly expressing their views while being interviewed by the driver who is no one else but the director Jafar Panahi himself. His camera placed on the dashboard of his mobile film studio captures the spirit of Iranian society through this comedic and dramatic drive…
Purchase / Learn More
|
1 ) The Mirror (1997)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 2
- Metacritc Critic Score: 8
- Metacritic User Score: 5
- IMDB User Review Score: 2
- Letterboxd User Score: 1
When a young Iranian’s mother doesn’t meet her after school, she tries to negotiate the streets of Tehran by herself.
Purchase / Learn More
|
Jafar Panahi’s Best Movies
Jafar Panahi Review Website Filmography Rankings
| Film | RT Critic | RT User | MC Critic | MC User | IMDB | Letterboxd | Overal Rank |
| The Mirror (1997) | 1 | 2 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Taxi (2015) | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 2 | 2 |
| This Is Not a Film (2011) | 3 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 3 |
| Crimson Gold (2003) | 7 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| The White Balloon (1995) | 8 | 1 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| The Circle (2000) | 6 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 6 |
| Offside (2006) | 5 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 6 | 6 |
| Three Faces (2018) | 1 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 9 | 9 | 8 |
| Closed Curtain (2013) | 9 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 11 | 8 | 9 |
| Untying the Knot (2007) | 9 | 9 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 10 |
| The Accordion (2010) | 9 | 9 | 8 | 5 | 10 | 9 | 11 |
