Favourite Iranian movies
by yagayo | created - 27 Oct 2012 | updated - 30 Jul 2017 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Rhino Season (2012)
88 min | Drama, Thriller
Kurdish-Iranian poet Sahel has just been released from a thirty-year prison sentence in Iran. Now the one thing keeping him going is the thought of finding his wife, who thinks him dead for over twenty years.
Director: Bahman Ghobadi | Stars: Behrouz Vossoughi, Monica Bellucci, Yilmaz Erdogan, Caner Cindoruk
Votes: 7,298
2. Turtles Can Fly (2004)
PG-13 | 98 min | Drama, War
Near the Iraqi-Turkish border on the eve of an American invasion, refugee children like 13-year-old Kak (Ebrahim), gauge and await their fate.
Director: Bahman Ghobadi | Stars: Soran Ebrahim, Avaz Latif, Saddam Hossein Feysal, Hiresh Feysal Rahman
Votes: 20,756 | Gross: $0.26M
3. No One Knows About Persian Cats (2009)
106 min | Drama, Music
Iranian musicians Negar and Ashkan look for band members to play at a London concert - and the visas that allow them to leave Tehran to do so.
Director: Bahman Ghobadi | Stars: Negar Shaghaghi, Ashkan Koshanejad, Hamed Behdad, Babak Mirzakhani
Votes: 7,480 | Gross: $0.08M
4. A Time for Drunken Horses (2000)
Not Rated | 80 min | Drama, War
Young Iranian Kurdish siblings try to save the youngest of them, who is seriously ill.
Director: Bahman Ghobadi | Stars: Ayoub Ahmadi, Rojin Younessi, Amaneh Ekhtiar-dini, Madi Ekhtiar-dini
Votes: 8,831 | Gross: $0.70M
5. Half Moon (2006)
107 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
Mamo, an old and legendary Kurdish musician living in Iran, plans to give one final concert in Iraqi Kurdistan. After seven months of trying to get a permit and rounding up his ten sons, he... See full summary »
Director: Bahman Ghobadi | Stars: Ismail Ghaffari, Allah-Morad Rashtian, Farzin Sabooni, Kambiz Arshi
Votes: 3,089 | Gross: $0.00M
6. Marooned in Iraq (2002)
100 min | Drama, War
During the war between Iran and Iraq, a group of Iranian Kurd musicians set off on an almost impossible mission. They will try to find Hanareh, a singer with a magic voice who crossed the ... See full summary »
Director: Bahman Ghobadi | Stars: Shahab Ebrahimi, Faegh Mohamadi, Allah-Morad Rashtian, Rojan Hosseini
Votes: 1,625 | Gross: $0.14M
7. A Separation (2011)
PG-13 | 123 min | Drama
A married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.
Director: Asghar Farhadi | Stars: Payman Maadi, Leila Hatami, Sareh Bayat, Shahab Hosseini
Votes: 258,518 | Gross: $7.10M
8. About Elly (2009)
TV-PG | 119 min | Drama, Mystery
The mysterious disappearance of a kindergarten teacher during a picnic in the north of Iran is followed by a series of misadventures for her fellow travelers.
Director: Asghar Farhadi | Stars: Taraneh Alidoosti, Golshifteh Farahani, Shahab Hosseini, Merila Zare'i
Votes: 57,160 | Gross: $0.11M
9. Fireworks Wednesday (2006)
Not Rated | 102 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
On the last Wednesday before the spring solstice ushers in the Persian New Year, people set off fireworks following an ancient Zoroastrian tradition. Rouhi, spending her first day at a new job, finds herself in the midst of a different kind of fireworks -- a domestic dispute between her new boss and his wife.
Director: Asghar Farhadi | Stars: Hediyeh Tehrani, Taraneh Alidoosti, Hamid Farrokhnezhad, Pantea Bahram
Votes: 13,488
10. Beautiful City (2004)
98 min | Drama, Romance
In Islamic Iran, how much is a woman worth in comparison with a man, and who pays the difference? This film is tale of vengeance, labyrinthine judicial procedure & the concept of "blood money."
Director: Asghar Farhadi | Stars: Faramarz Gharibian, Taraneh Alidoosti, Babak Ansari, Ahoo Kheradmand
Votes: 6,200
11. This Is Not a Film (2011)
Not Rated | 75 min | Documentary
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.
Directors: Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, Jafar Panahi | Stars: Jafar Panahi, Igi, Mrs. Gheirat, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb
Votes: 5,644 | Gross: $0.08M
12. Crimson Gold (2003)
Unrated | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
An Iranian pizza delivery man sees the worst of corruption and social unbalance in his city and is driven to crime.
Director: Jafar Panahi | Stars: Hossain Emadeddin, Kamyar Sheisi, Azita Rayeji, Shahram Vaziri
Votes: 5,299 | Gross: $0.15M
13. Offside (2006)
PG | 93 min | Comedy, Drama, Sport
The struggle of women in a country that excludes them from entering stadiums.
Director: Jafar Panahi | Stars: Sima Mobarak-Shahi, Shayesteh Irani, Ayda Sadeqi, Mohammad Asarian
Votes: 8,605 | Gross: $0.18M
14. The Circle (2000)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama
Various women struggle to function in the oppressively sexist society of contemporary Iran.
Director: Jafar Panahi | Stars: Maryiam Palvin Almani, Nargess Mamizadeh, Mojgan Faramarzi, Elham Saboktakin
Votes: 6,682 | Gross: $0.67M
15. The White Balloon (1995)
Unrated | 85 min | Drama, Family
Several people try to help a little girl to find the money her mom gave her to buy a goldfish with.
Director: Jafar Panahi | Stars: Aida Mohammadkhani, Mohsen Kafili, Fereshteh Sadre Orafaiy, Anna Borkowska
Votes: 8,244 | Gross: $0.47M
16. The Color of Paradise (1999)
PG | 90 min | Drama, Family
The story of Mohammed, a blind Iranian boy and his father, Hashem, who is always oscillating between accepting his son as he is and abandoning him, as he represents a burden for him, after the loss of his wife.
Director: Majid Majidi | Stars: Hossein Mahjoub, Mohsen Ramezani, Salameh Feyzi, Farahnaz Safari
Votes: 18,198 | Gross: $1.81M
17. Children of Heaven (1997)
PG | 89 min | Drama, Family, Sport
After a boy loses his sister's pair of shoes, he goes on a series of adventures in order to find them. When he can't, he tries a new way to "win" a new pair.
Director: Majid Majidi | Stars: Mohammad Amir Naji, Amir Farrokh Hashemian, Bahare Seddiqi, Nafise Jafar-Mohammadi
Votes: 80,697 | Gross: $0.93M
18. The Willow Tree (2005)
PG | 96 min | Drama
Youssef, a blind university professor, is suddenly diagnosed with a fatal disease and must undergo treatment in France. Back home, will he find the life he had before?
Director: Majid Majidi | Stars: Parviz Parastui, Roya Teymourian, Soghra Obeisi, Mohammad Amir Naji
Votes: 4,526 | Gross: $0.03M
19. The Song of Sparrows (2008)
PG | 96 min | Drama, Family
When an ostrich-rancher focuses on replacing his daughter's hearing aid, which breaks right before crucial exams, everything changes for a struggling rural family in Iran. Karim motorbikes ... See full summary »
Director: Majid Majidi | Stars: Mohammad Amir Naji, Maryam Akbari, Kamran Dehghan, Hamid Aghazi
Votes: 11,105 | Gross: $0.12M
20. Baran (2001)
PG | 94 min | Drama, Romance
In a building site in present-day Tehran, Lateef, a 17-year-old Turkish worker is irresistibly drawn to Rahmat, a young Afghan worker. The revelation of Rahmat's secret changes both their lives.
Director: Majid Majidi | Stars: Hossein Abedini, Zahra Bahrami, Mohammad Amir Naji, Hossein Mahjoub
Votes: 8,963 | Gross: $0.13M
21. Blackboards (2000)
88 min | Drama, War
Itinerant Kurdish teachers, carrying blackboards on their backs, look for students in the hills and villages of Iran, near the Iraqi border during the Iran-Iraq war. Said falls in with a ... See full summary »
Director: Samira Makhmalbaf | Stars: Said Mohamadi, Behnaz Jafari, Bahman Ghobadi, Mohamad Karim Rahmati
Votes: 2,905 | Gross: $0.00M
22. The Wind Will Carry Us (1999)
Not Rated | 118 min | Drama
Irreverent city engineer Behzad comes to a rural village in Iran to keep vigil for a dying relative. In the meanwhile the film follows his efforts to fit in with the local community and how he changes his own attitudes as a result.
Director: Abbas Kiarostami | Stars: Behzad Dorani, Noghre Asadi, Roushan Karam Elmi, Bahman Ghobadi
Votes: 12,320 | Gross: $0.21M
23. Close-Up (1990)
Not Rated | 98 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
The true story of Hossain Sabzian, a cinephile who impersonated the director Mohsen Makhmalbaf to convince a family they would star in his so-called new film.
Director: Abbas Kiarostami | Stars: Hossain Sabzian, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Abolfazl Ahankhah, Mehrdad Ahankhah
Votes: 23,014 | Gross: $0.00M
24. Taste of Cherry (1997)
Not Rated | 95 min | Drama
An Iranian man drives his car in search of someone who will quietly bury him under a cherry tree after he commits suicide.
Director: Abbas Kiarostami | Stars: Homayoun Ershadi, Abdolhosein Bagheri, Afshin Khorshid Bakhtiari, Safar Ali Moradi
Votes: 36,754 | Gross: $0.31M
25. Ten (2002)
Not Rated | 94 min | Drama
A visual social examination in the form of ten conversations between a driving woman and her various pick-ups and hitchhikers.
Director: Abbas Kiarostami | Stars: Mania Akbari, Amina Maher, Kamran Adl, Roya Akbari
Votes: 8,605 | Gross: $0.11M
26. Tehran Has No More Pomegrenates! (2007)
Not Rated | 67 min | Documentary, Comedy, History
This is the story of Tehran from the Qajar time (middle of 19th century) to today. Tehran has become a metropolis from a small village, now a developed city with many social problems.
Director: Massoud Bakhshi | Stars: Ain Al-Daula, Massoud Bakhshi, Winston Churchill, Forugh Farrokhzad
Votes: 401
27. The Lizard (2004)
115 min | Comedy, Drama
A recently jailed petty thief disguises as a Mullah and succeeds in escaping; but has to stay in the Mullah' role longer than he expected to.
Director: Kamal Tabrizi | Stars: Parviz Parastui, Bahram Ebrahimi, Reza Saeedi, Shahrokh Foroutanian
Votes: 22,447
28. The Mirror (1997)
95 min | Drama
When a young girl becomes lost in the hustle and bustle of Tehran, her journey turns into a dazzling exercise on the nature of film itself.
Director: Jafar Panahi | Stars: Mina Mohammad Khani, Kazem Mojdehi, Naser Omuni, M. Shirzad
Votes: 3,138 | Gross: $0.04M
29. The Past (2013)
PG-13 | 130 min | Drama, Mystery
An Iranian man deserts his French wife and her two children to return to his homeland. Meanwhile, his wife starts up a new relationship, a reality her husband confronts upon his wife's request for a divorce.
Director: Asghar Farhadi | Stars: Bérénice Bejo, Tahar Rahim, Ali Mosaffa, Pauline Burlet
Votes: 50,888 | Gross: $1.33M
30. Goodbye (2011)
105 min | Drama
Story of a young lawyer in Tehran in search of a visa to leave the country, which is what Mohammad Rasoulof did during the winter of 2010/11.
Director: Mohammad Rasoulof | Stars: Leila Zare, Fereshteh Sadre Orafaiy, Shahab Hosseini, Roya Teymourian
Votes: 825
31. A Cube of Sugar (2011)
PG | 116 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
The story happens in an old house in an old city of Iran. Because of the wedding of the youngest sister, Pasandide, all of her sisters come to their old house to help their mother.
Director: Reza Mirkarimi | Stars: Reza Kianian, Negar Javaherian, Farhad Aslani, Saeed Poursamimi
Votes: 4,253
32. Life and a Day (2016)
112 min | Drama
Somaieh, the youngest daughter of an indigent family, is getting married and fear is overwhelming each and every member of the family regarding how to overcome their difficulties after she's gone.
Director: Saeed Roustayi | Stars: Payman Maadi, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Parinaz Izadyar, Shabnam Moghadami
Votes: 17,522
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