Director: Mohammad Reza Kheradmandan

Cast: Sareh Bayat, Hamidreza Azarang, Amir Hossein Seddigh

21 Rooz Bad is a 2017 Iranian drama-family film directed by Mohammad Reza Kheradmandan, following a young working-class man whose dream of making a short film collides with the pressing realities of family hardship and financial struggle.

What is 21 Rooz Bad about?

At the center of the film is a young man with little money but a big creative ambition: he wants to produce a short film centered on a mysterious figure who halts oncoming trains. As he scrapes together the funds needed to get his project off the ground, life refuses to slow down around him. His mother falls ill, personal obligations multiply, and the weight of his household responsibilities threatens to crush his artistic aspirations before they have a chance to breathe. The film charts his daily effort to hold these two worlds together — the dream he is chasing and the family he cannot abandon — across twenty-one difficult days.

Cast & crew

Sareh Bayat, one of Iran's most respected dramatic actresses known for her emotionally grounded performances, leads the cast alongside Hamidreza Azarang, a versatile stage and screen actor with a long career in Iranian cinema. Amir Hossein Seddigh rounds out the principal trio. The ensemble is helmed by director Mohammad Reza Kheradmandan.

Context & significance

21 Rooz Bad belongs to a long tradition of Iranian social-realist cinema that finds its drama not in grand spectacle but in the quiet dignity of ordinary lives. Films in this vein — grounded in urban working-class experience, torn between personal aspiration and communal duty — have resonated deeply with Iranian audiences at home and abroad. For diaspora viewers who grew up watching this style of storytelling, or who carry their own memories of navigating ambition under constraint, the film offers a language they recognize immediately. It is the kind of Iranian cinema that travels well precisely because its emotional core is universal.

Where & how to watch

21 Rooz Bad is available now on K-Time with original Persian audio. Stream it on your browser, TV, or phone with no VPN needed and no geo-blocking. Membership is flexible — cancel anytime.