Director: Dariush Mehrjui

Cast: Saeed Kangarani, Ezzatolah Entezami, Fourouzan

Dayereye Mina is a 1978 Iranian drama film directed by Dariush Mehrjui, one of the defining works of the Iranian New Wave. Set against the harsh realities of urban poverty in Tehran, it follows a young man and his sick father navigating a healthcare system indifferent to the poor, exposing the human cost of inequality with unflinching honesty.

What is Dayereye Mina about?

When Ali's father falls gravely ill, the two set out from their impoverished neighborhood on the city's margins toward a hospital that promises treatment but demands money neither of them has. Desperate to cover the costs, Ali finds work with Dr. Sameri, a physician entangled in a shadowy trade involving blood donations and the city's destitute. What begins as a son's act of devotion draws Ali deeper into a world where the human body itself becomes a commodity. Mehrjui traces this descent without melodrama, letting the rhythms of daily struggle and quiet desperation speak for themselves. The film asks who bears the true cost of a society's indifference, and whether good intentions can survive inside corrupt systems.

The K-Time take

Mehrjui shoots Tehran's margins with documentary restraint, letting cramped corridors and exhausted faces carry the film's moral weight. The performances by Entezami and Kangarani are lived-in and quietly devastating, grounding an allegory about systemic failure in viscerally human terms. At 101 minutes, Dayereye Mina sustains a slow, purposeful tension that rewards patient viewers.

Cast & crew

Director Dariush Mehrjui was the architect of Iranian art cinema, previously acclaimed for The Cow (1969). Saeed Kangarani brings raw, unaffected energy to the role of Ali. Veteran actor Ezzatolah Entezami, one of Iranian cinema's most celebrated presences, portrays the ailing father with restrained dignity. Fourouzan rounds out the principal cast in a supporting role.

Context & significance

Made two years before the 1979 Revolution, Dayereye Mina (دایره‌ی مینا) captured a society straining under inequality and institutional rot — themes that resonated far beyond their immediate moment. For the Iranian diaspora, the film carries a particular weight: it documents the Tehran of a vanished era, the faces, streets, and social contracts that shaped a generation. Mehrjui's New Wave peers, including Abbas Kiarostami, were charting similar territory, but Dayereye Mina stands apart for its direct engagement with class and bodily vulnerability. Watching it abroad, diaspora viewers often find in it an elegy for an Iran that was already disappearing before the Revolution arrived.

Where & how to watch

Dayereye Mina is available to stream on K-Time with original Persian audio. Watch it on the web, on your TV, or on your phone — no VPN needed, no geo-blocking, cancel anytime.