Director: Morteza Ali Abbasmirzaee
Cast: Laya Abbasmirzaei, Ali Alikhani, Behnoosh Bakhtiari, Jamshid Hashempur, Shaghayegh Farahani
Enzeva is a 2017 Iranian drama-thriller directed by Morteza Ali Abbasmirzaee, following a woman's sudden death and her imprisoned husband's desperate three-day release to confront the truth. Clocking in at 93 minutes, it weaves suspense and grief into a tightly coiled mystery rooted in ordinary Tehran life.
What is Enzeva about?
Zohreh is walking home one evening when a creeping fear overtakes her — the unmistakable feeling that she is being followed. In her panic to get away, she steps into traffic and is struck by a car, dying at the scene. The news reaches Parviz, her husband, who has been locked away for six years. Prison authorities grant him a short compassionate leave — three days on bail — to handle her burial and say goodbye. Parviz attends the funeral, visibly shaken, yet something beyond grief consumes him. He carries a private suspicion about Zohreh, a secret weight that not even mourning can dislodge, and those seventy-two hours become a race against the clock to uncover what really surrounded her final moments before he must return to his cell.
Cast & crew
The film stars Laya Abbasmirzaei — who shares the director's surname — as Zohreh, bringing a quiet intensity to a role that exists largely in fragmented flashbacks. Ali Alikhani plays Parviz, anchoring the film's emotional centre. The supporting cast includes Behnoosh Bakhtiari, Jamshid Hashempur, and Shaghayegh Farahani, each lending credibility to the milieu of a grieving community keeping its secrets.
Context & significance
Iranian cinema has long excelled at turning confined domestic spaces into pressure chambers for social tension, and Enzeva fits squarely in that tradition. Produced in 2017, it arrived during a period when Iranian genre filmmakers were pushing drama toward tighter, more commercially aware structures — shorter runtimes, propulsive pacing — while keeping the introspective core that defines Persian storytelling. For diaspora viewers, the film's Tehran neighbourhood backdrop and the cultural weight of a husband's honour, a wife's unspoken life, and an incarcerated man's helplessness will feel immediately recognisable. It is the kind of story that asks quiet but uncomfortable questions about what we know about those closest to us.
Where & how to watch
Enzeva is available on K-Time with original Persian audio. Watch on the web, on your TV, or on your phone — no VPN needed, no geo-blocking, and you can cancel anytime.