Is Derakhte Gerdoo based on a true story?

Yes. The film dramatizes the real chemical attack on Sardasht, Iran, on June 28th, 1987, when Iraqi aircraft dropped mustard gas bombs on residential areas — the first such attack targeting a civilian city in modern warfare.

Is this film available with Persian subtitles or Persian dub?

The film is in original Persian audio, so no subtitles or dub are required for Farsi-speaking viewers. It streams in its original language on K-Time.

Koja bebinam filmo? Can I watch it outside Iran?

You can watch Derakhte Gerdoo on K-Time from anywhere in the world — no VPN needed, no geo-blocking. Stream it on your browser, TV, or phone with a K-Time subscription.

What other films has director Mahdavian made about the Iran-Iraq War?

Mohammad Hossein Mahdavian directed Check (Checkpoint), another Iran-Iraq War-era film known for its documentary-influenced style and close focus on individual soldiers and civilians caught in conflict.

Derakhte Gerdoo

Name: Derakhte Gerdoo
Genre: Drama, History, War
Released: 2020
Duration: 100 min
Cast: Payman Maadi, Mina Sadati, Minoo Sharifi

Director: Mohammad Hossein Mahdavian

Cast: Payman Maadi, Mina Sadati, Minoo Sharifi

Derakhte Gerdoo (The Walnut Tree) is a 2020 Iranian historical war drama directed by Mohammad Hossein Mahdavian, recounting the chemical attack on Sardasht — the first deliberate use of chemical weapons against a civilian population in modern history — through the eyes of one ordinary family torn apart by extraordinary evil.

What is Derakhte Gerdoo about?

Qader is a working-class bricklayer living a modest but full life in Sardasht, a small Kurdish city near Iran's western border. His pregnant wife is days away from delivering their fourth child, and the family's attention is on the new life about to arrive. Then, on June 28th, 1987, Iraqi warplanes release clouds of mustard gas over the city's residential neighborhoods. Within minutes, the family's world collapses. What follows is a portrait of survival and grief — of a man who walked into one morning and never walked out the same, in a community left to reckon with wounds that neither time nor medicine could fully heal.

The K-Time take

Mahdavian grounds an almost unbearable historical atrocity in the specific and the personal, refusing the broad strokes of propaganda in favor of domestic intimacy. Payman Maadi brings his trademark restrained naturalism to Qader, making the character's bewilderment feel visceral and human. The film's greatest achievement is its refusal to let numbers eclipse faces.

Cast & crew

Payman Maadi, one of Iran's most internationally recognized actors, leads as Qader, drawing on the quiet intensity he demonstrated in A Separation. Mina Sadati and Minoo Sharifi portray the women around him, giving texture to the family's bonds and losses. Director Mohammad Hossein Mahdavian previously examined Iran's wartime history in Check (Checkpoint), establishing a precise, character-driven approach to the Iran-Iraq War era.

Context & significance

The 1987 Sardasht chemical attack holds a particular weight in Iranian collective memory, yet it remains underrepresented in world cinema. For diaspora viewers — especially those with family roots in western Iran or Kurdistan — this film gives shape to a trauma that older relatives may have lived through but rarely described in full. Mahdavian's approach is neither jingoistic nor detached: he insists on the civilian face of the catastrophe, which makes the film relevant far beyond national borders. Watching Derakhte Gerdoo is an act of witness.

Where & how to watch

Derakhte Gerdoo is available on K-Time with original Persian audio. Stream instantly on the web, your TV, or your phone — no VPN required, no geo-blocking, cancel anytime.