Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Cast: Zohreh Sarmadi, Esmaeel Soltaniyan, Mohammad Talaie, Somayyeh Ebrahimi, Morteza Zarrabi
Dast Foroosh is a 1987 Iranian drama-crime film directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf, composed of three interconnected episodes that examine poverty, desperation, and survival on the margins of urban life in Iran. Running 90 minutes, the film offers an unflinching look at social hardship through three distinct yet thematically unified stories.
What is Dast Foroosh about?
The film unfolds across three separate episodes, each centered on a different figure living under crushing economic and emotional strain. In the first, a destitute couple burdened with several disabled children make an agonizing choice about their newborn, hoping a different path might offer the child a future they themselves cannot provide. The second episode follows a solitary young man with an intellectual disability who shoulders the care of his elderly, gravely ill mother, navigating isolation and exhaustion with quiet determination. The third episode portrays a timid street vendor trapped in a cycle of dependence, struggling to break free from an overbearing employer. Together the three stories form a mosaic of lives shaped by circumstances beyond their control, each character caught between duty and despair.
Cast & crew
Mohsen Makhmalbaf, one of Iranian cinema's most significant directors, guides a largely non-star ensemble through emotionally demanding material. Zohreh Sarmadi and Esmaeel Soltaniyan lead the cast alongside Mohammad Talaie, Somayyeh Ebrahimi, Morteza Zarrabi, Mahmoud Basiri, Moharram Zeinalzadeh, and Davoud Ghanbari. The performances are restrained and grounded, suited to the film's documentary-adjacent tone.
Context & significance
Dast Foroosh was made during a formative period in Iranian cinema, when filmmakers were navigating strict post-revolutionary constraints while still producing work of social depth. Makhmalbaf was entering his mature phase, gradually moving toward a more humanist style that would define his internationally recognized later films. For diaspora audiences, the film carries particular resonance: the poverty and social pressures it depicts were lived realities for many Iranian families. The anthology structure allows viewers to sit with multiple voices rather than a single protagonist, reflecting the breadth of social conditions the director sought to document. This is Iranian cinema working in a realist vein, close to the earth, attentive to the overlooked.
Where & how to watch
Dast Foroosh is available on K-Time in its original Persian audio without subtitles. You can watch on the web, on your TV, or on your phone — no extra download required, no VPN needed, and no geo-blocking. Start and cancel anytime.