Director: Soheil Beiraghi

Cast: Baran Kosari, Amir Jadidi, Sahar Dolatshahi, Leili Rashidi, Hoda Zeinolabedin

Araghe Sard is a 2018 Iranian drama film directed by Soheil Beiraghi, following the captain of Iran's national women's futsal team as a bureaucratic barrier threatens to end her dream of competing in the Asian Games final hours before her flight departs.

What is Araghe Sard about?

When Iran's women's futsal squad earns a coveted spot in the Asian Games final in Malaysia, the entire team arrives at the airport ready to make history. For the team captain, however, the morning quickly unravels. Her husband has withheld his signature from the spousal exit-permit form — the legal document Iranian women at the time were required to hold in order to leave the country. What follows is a pressure-cooker race against departure time: phone calls, confrontations, appeals to officials, and the silent weight of teammates watching from the gate. The film unfolds almost in real time, keeping the tension relentlessly tight as a woman fights not only for her place on the plane but for the right to represent her country.

Cast & crew

Director Soheil Beiraghi brings a taut, observational eye to the material, and his lead ensemble is formidable. Baran Kosari carries the film as the beleaguered captain, conveying quiet fury and fierce resolve. Amir Jadidi, Sahar Dolatshahi, Leili Rashidi, and Hoda Zeinolabedin round out a cast that grounds every escalating moment in lived reality.

Context & significance

Araghe Sard arrives at a moment when Iranian women's rights — and specifically the male-guardianship exit-permit law — were under sustained international scrutiny. For diaspora viewers who lived through or fled these legal constraints, the film carries an unmistakable personal resonance. It belongs to a thread of Iranian social cinema that uses a single compressed situation to illuminate a systemic injustice, drawing comparisons to the claustrophobic realism of filmmakers like Asghar Farhadi. Sports serve as the vehicle, but the true arena is Iranian womanhood: ambition, legal subordination, and the cost of a signature withheld.

Where & how to watch

Araghe Sard is available on K-Time with original Persian audio — no VPN needed, no extra download required. Stream on your browser, TV, or phone anywhere in the world. Cancel anytime.