Director: Saeed Roustaee
Cast: Tarane Alidousti, Saeed Poursamimi, Navid Mohammadzade, Payman Maadi, Farhad Aslani
Baradaran Leila is a 2022 Iranian drama film directed by Saeed Roustaee, running 165 minutes and centered on one woman's fierce attempt to hold her family together against the grinding pressures of debt, tradition, and international economic sanctions. With an IMDb rating of 7.9, it stands among the most acclaimed Iranian films of its decade.
What is Baradaran Leila about?
Leila has spent four decades quietly absorbing her family's weight — cooking, managing, sacrificing — while her four brothers drift through failed schemes and mounting bills. When she discovers that her father Esmail has been hoarding a precious family heirloom not as a shared asset but as an offering to secure the ceremonial title of clan patriarch, something shifts inside her. She devises a plan: convert that hidden wealth into a small business that could pull the whole family off the edge of poverty. But convincing her brothers to act in concert, and convincing her father to relinquish the one thing that still gives him dignity, proves far harder than she imagined. Each brother's choices, and each argument that follows, tightens the rope a little more. Roustaee builds the tension slowly, letting every mundane disagreement carry the full weight of a family on the verge of collapse.
The K-Time take
Roustaee shoots Baradaran Leila with the patience and precision of a playwright — long takes, cramped interiors, overlapping voices that feel less like dialogue and more like a documented record of how families slowly undo themselves. Tarane Alidousti delivers a performance of fierce restraint, making Leila's quiet determination far more devastating than any outburst could be. The film earns its runtime: nearly three hours that never feel padded.
Cast & crew
Director Saeed Roustaee previously drew international attention with Just 6.5 (2019). Tarane Alidousti, one of Iran's most celebrated actors, leads as Leila. Saeed Poursamimi and Navid Mohammadzade play two of the brothers, alongside Payman Maadi, Farhad Aslani, Nayereh Farahani, Mohammad Ali Mohammadi, and Mehdi Hosseinina rounding out the family ensemble.
Context & significance
For Iranian diaspora viewers, Baradaran Leila hits with particular force because it is not primarily a political film — it is a family film. Yet the political is inescapable: the suffocating debt, the stalled ambitions, the father's desperate clinging to a ceremonial honour that costs the family everything, all emerge directly from an economy strangled by sanctions. The film asks what tradition is worth when it consumes the people it is supposed to protect, a question that resonates across generations of Iranians inside the country and abroad. Roustaee trusts his audience to read the subtext without spelling it out, which is one reason the film travels so well beyond its domestic context.
Where & how to watch
Baradaran Leila is available on K-Time with Persian subtitles. You can stream it on your browser, TV, or phone — no VPN needed, no geo-blocking, no extra download required. Start watching anytime and cancel anytime.