Director: Milad Alami
A wrestling mat in a frozen Swedish town becomes the last place a father can still control his own story in Doshman, a 2023 Norwegian-Swedish drama built around a family running from a secret rather than a war.
What is Doshman about?
Iman, his wife, and their children arrive in northern Sweden after fleeing Iran, settling into a cramped asylum hotel while they wait for their case to move forward. Iman quietly breaks a promise he made to his wife and signs up for the town's wrestling club, calculating that a spot on the roster might strengthen the family's claim and give his son a foothold in a country that treats them as temporary guests. He throws himself into training, trying to hold the household together through routine and discipline even as the family's finances and patience thin out. The uneasy calm cracks when a rumor from Iman's past resurfaces through a former teammate now living in the same region, forcing him to reckon with the real reason his family had to leave in the first place. As immigration officials probe deeper into their asylum interviews, Iman has to decide how much of the truth he can afford to protect and how much will cost him the life he is trying to build for his children.
Cast & crew
Payman Maadi anchors the film as Iman, playing a man whose composure is a survival tactic rather than a personality trait. Marall Nasiri plays his wife with a wariness that sharpens as the family's situation grows more precarious, and Ardalan Esmaili and Arvin Kananian appear as figures from the wrestling club whose presence complicates Iman's plan. Swedish cast members Björn Elgerd and Magnus Mark round out the hotel and club settings that trap the family between two worlds.
Context & significance
Director Milad Alami, who has explored displacement and masculinity in earlier short work, sets the story inside the granular routines of asylum bureaucracy rather than treating exile as a single dramatic event. Doshman was shot mostly in Swedish and Persian and premiered at international festivals before reaching wider streaming audiences, part of a wave of Nordic-Iranian co-productions examining what refugee families give up, and hide, to stay safe.
Where & how to watch
Doshman is available to stream on K-Time with a free account login; the film's page, cast details, and this write-up are free to read without signing in. K-Time's Farsi-first interface and subtitle support are built for Persian-speaking households across the diaspora who want a smooth, familiar way to watch stories like Iman's.