Wooden Bridge, Mehdi Karampour's 2012 drama, takes its name from the old crossing that once linked historic Tehran to the Shemiran countryside — and turns that image of a fragile passage between two worlds into the emotional map of a marriage caught between past and present.
What is Pol Choobi about?
Amir, a young Tehran businessman played by Bahram Radan, appears to have a settled life: a growing company, a comfortable home, and a marriage to Shirin, portrayed by Mahnaz Afshar. The calm is deceptive. When a figure from Amir's past resurfaces after years abroad, old feelings and unfinished conversations return with her, and the couple's carefully maintained routine begins to crack. Set against a restless Tehran in a period of social tension, the film follows Amir as he is pulled between loyalty and longing, while Shirin must decide how much truth a marriage can absorb. Farhad Aslani rounds out the central trio in a story where every choice carries a cost and no bridge, once burned, is easily rebuilt.
About the cast
Bahram Radan and Mahnaz Afshar were two of the most recognisable faces of Iranian cinema in the early 2010s, and Wooden Bridge pairs them at the height of that visibility. Radan carries the film's moral weight as Amir, while Afshar gives Shirin a quiet steeliness. Farhad Aslani, a two-time Fajr honoree across his career, adds his customary gravity in support.
Context & significance
Director Mehdi Karampour, also known for music-themed features, shot Wooden Bridge in Tehran and drew its title from a real piece of the city's geography: the wooden bridge over the northern trench of the old capital, a passage between the traditional city and the gardens of Shemiran. The metaphor is deliberate — the film is about people suspended between an older idea of commitment and a modern life that keeps offering exits. Released in 2012, it runs 98 minutes and sits in the romantic-drama vein of that era's urban Iranian cinema, films that examined middle-class marriages under pressure rather than offering escapist romance.
Watching Pol Choobi on K-Time
Wooden Bridge streams on K-Time in its original Persian. Reading this page is free; to press play you just need to log in with a K-Time account. The service is built for the Iranian diaspora, with a Farsi-friendly interface and a catalogue centred on Persian-language cinema, so the film plays as it was meant to be heard — no dub required.