Director: Reza Nejati
Cast: Hootan Shakiba, Siavash Cheraghipour
Erfagh is a 2021 Iranian short drama film directed by Reza Nejati, running approximately seventeen minutes. It centers on two students who devise a scheme targeting their mathematics teacher, exploring themes of youthful rebellion, loyalty, and the unpredictable consequences of even small acts of defiance.
What is Erfagh about?
Two young friends share a quiet resentment toward their math teacher and begin plotting against him. What begins as a minor act of student mischief gradually reveals deeper tensions — between authority and youth, between the impulse to act and the weight of responsibility. As the plan unfolds, the bond between the two boys is tested, and the gap between their intentions and the real-world outcomes becomes uncomfortably clear. Nejati keeps the narrative tight and restrained, letting small gestures and silences carry what dialogue does not, building a portrait of adolescent ambition that is both specific and universal.
Cast & crew
The film stars Hootan Shakiba and Siavash Cheraghipour in its two central roles, with Shakiba bringing a quiet intensity to the more calculating of the two friends. Director Reza Nejati shapes their performances with economy, coaxing naturalistic turns from both actors that suit the film's understated, observational register.
Context & significance
Short films have long occupied a vital place in Iranian cinema — a training ground where directors hone a disciplined visual grammar that prizes implication over statement. Erfagh fits squarely within that tradition: a school-set drama that uses a familiar student-teacher conflict as a lens for something more morally textured. For diaspora audiences who grew up navigating the strict hierarchies of Iranian education, the film carries an immediate, visceral recognition — the classroom as a site of quiet power struggles. At seventeen minutes, it demonstrates how much emotional resonance can be packed into a brief, carefully observed slice of everyday life.
Where & how to watch
Erfagh is available on K-Time with original Persian audio. No VPN is needed and there is no geo-blocking — watch directly on the web, on your TV, or on your phone. Start a subscription and cancel anytime.