Director: Ebrahim Irajzade

Cast: Mohsen Tanabande, Sare Bayat, Shirin Yazdanbakhsh, Mahour Alvand

Ankaboot is a 2020 Iranian drama film directed by Ebrahim Irajzade, exploring the volatile intersection of male pride, religious devotion, and street-level humiliation in contemporary Tehran. Running 95 minutes, it follows an ordinary man whose sense of honor is shattered in a single incident that pulls him toward a dangerous path.

What is Ankaboot Full about?

Saeed is a middle-aged man of modest means who takes quiet pride in his faith and in being a reliable husband. His carefully ordered life fractures when a driver makes a crude and deeply offensive assumption about his wife on a public street. The insult cuts to the core of everything Saeed believes about his family's dignity. Rather than letting the matter go, he becomes consumed by the need to settle the score — a fixation that grows into something far larger than the original offense, threatening to unravel the very life he was trying to protect.

Cast & crew

Director Ebrahim Irajzade shapes a tightly contained character study built around Mohsen Tanabande in the lead role of Saeed — an actor known for bringing understated intensity to ordinary figures under pressure. Sare Bayat plays his wife, grounding the emotional stakes of the story. Shirin Yazdanbakhsh and Mahour Alvand round out the principal ensemble, adding texture to the social world the film constructs.

Context & significance

Iranian social cinema has long used the figure of the aggrieved everyman to examine the gap between religious and cultural ideals and the harsh texture of urban life. Ankaboot fits squarely within that tradition — a film about masculine honor, public shame, and the speed with which controlled men lose control. For diaspora viewers who grew up watching films by directors working in this realist register, the film's familiar Tehran backdrops and moral weight carry a strong sense of recognition. It speaks to dynamics that many Iranian families know from lived experience: the pressure on men to perform strength, and the quiet toll that pressure exacts.

Where & how to watch

Ankaboot is available on K-Time with Persian audio (original language, dubbed). You can watch instantly on the web, on your TV, or on your phone — no extra download required, no VPN, no geo-blocking. Subscribe and cancel anytime.