Pooste Shirپوست شیر, “Lionskin” — is a family drama that opens where most prison stories end: at the gate, on the day a man walks free. Directed by Jamshid Mahmoudi and led by Shahab Hosseini, it holds an IMDb 8.1 and is one of the more-watched series in the K-Time catalogue, with more than 26,000 plays.

What it’s about

Naeem spent fifteen years inside, carried through them by a single image — his daughter, and the day he would see her again. Release does not deliver that day cleanly. The world moved on without him; the daughter he imagined is a person he has to actually meet, and the reunion he survived prison for becomes the start of a much harder reckoning. Hadi Hejazifar, Pantea Bahrami and Mehrdad Sedighian fill out a family with its own debts and silences.

Why it works

The title is the idea: a lion’s skin worn by someone who is not sure he is still a lion. Hosseini plays Naeem with the quiet, coiled control that has made him one of Iran’s most trusted leading men, and Mahmoudi — who made the acclaimed A Few Cubic Meters of Love — keeps the melodrama honest. At an 8.1, it is one of the higher-rated Persian series of its year, and it earns the rating by refusing the easy reunion.

If you like this

Hosseini also leads the historical landmark Shahrzad, a natural next watch. For more long-form Persian drama, Aban and the Iranian drama shelf are good places to continue, and the 2024 collection covers the recent film side.

Watching on K-Time

Pooste Shir streams on K-Time in original Persian, full quality, on Android TV, Fire TV, Google TV and Nvidia Shield — no VPN, no geo-block. Start a free trial, or pick up the pre-configured K-Time دستگاه at an Iranian shop in the Greater Toronto Area and start the first episode tonight.