Director: Mojtaba Saeidzadeh

Cast: Saeid Arab, Hossein Toushe, Saeid Majidi, Abolfazl Javidpour, Taranom Arab

Abbas Khaan is a 2021 Iranian family-drama film directed by Mojtaba Saeidzadeh, set in a rural village during the sacred days of Muharram. The film follows a young man caught between his modern sensibilities and his community's deep-rooted religious and theatrical traditions, culminating in a quiet test of identity and faith.

What is Abbas Khaan about?

Reza lives in a small village and earns a quiet living doing theatre work, spending his spare hours photographing the countryside and sharing his images online. His late father was a celebrated taziyeh performer — a practitioner of Iran's traditional Shia passion play — and as Tasua approaches, the village elders and community members turn their eyes to Reza, expecting him to step into his father's role and portray Hazrat Abbas in the taziyeh ceremony. The problem: nobody believes he can do it. The villagers know him as Reza Gharti — a dismissive nickname suggesting he is too soft, too modern, too interested in cameras and social media to carry the weight of a sacred character. What follows is a story about the gap between how a community sees a person and who that person actually is.

Cast & crew

The film is led by Saeid Arab alongside Hossein Toushe and Saeid Majidi in supporting roles, with Abolfazl Javidpour, Taranom Arab, Avaa Mehdipour, and Emad Mehdizadeh rounding out the ensemble. Director Mojtaba Saeidzadeh grounds the cast in an authentic rural setting, drawing restrained performances that fit the film's understated, community-focused tone.

Context & significance

Taziyeh — the Persian passion play commemorating the martyrdom of Imam Hussein and his companions at Karbala — is one of the oldest continuous theatrical traditions in the world, and it remains deeply woven into the social fabric of Iranian villages. Abbas Khaan uses this tradition not as spectacle but as an emotional anchor: for many diaspora viewers who grew up watching Muharram ceremonies, the film will carry a particular resonance. It surfaces the tension that many Iranians living abroad quietly recognize — the pull between a secular, image-saturated present and the communal rituals that shaped childhood. The film offers no easy resolution, but its warmth toward both Reza and his village makes it accessible even for viewers unfamiliar with taziyeh's religious context.

Where & how to watch

Abbas Khaan is available to stream on K-Time with original Persian audio. Watch on the web browser, your TV, or your phone — no VPN needed, no geo-blocking, and no extra download required. Start or cancel anytime.