Director: Fereydoun Jeyrani
Cast: Hediyeh Tehrani, Mohammad Reza Forutan, Kamand Amirsoleimani
Ghermez is a 1998 Iranian drama-thriller directed by Fereydoun Jeyrani, starring Hediyeh Tehrani in a career-defining role. Set in contemporary Tehran, the film follows a widowed nurse navigating a marriage to a deeply controlling man, with the domestic world becoming increasingly suffocating and dangerous.
What is Ghermez about?
Hasti is a widowed nurse raising her young daughter on her own when she accepts a marriage proposal from a wealthy man who offers apparent security. What begins as a hopeful new chapter reveals itself to be something far more complicated. Her husband's possessive nature and growing paranoia cast long shadows over their household. Hasti finds her autonomy eroded, her movements scrutinised, and her sense of self-worth slowly undermined. The film traces the quiet devastation of coercive control — not through dramatic violence but through the steady accumulation of psychological pressure — until Hasti must decide what she is willing to do, and lose, to reclaim herself.
Cast & crew
Hediyeh Tehrani delivers a restrained and deeply affecting performance as Hasti, conveying vulnerability and resolve with extraordinary economy. Mohammad Reza Forutan plays the husband with unsettling credibility — charming on the surface, corroded beneath. Kamand Amirsoleimani rounds out the central ensemble. Director Fereydoun Jeyrani was among the foremost Iranian filmmakers working in popular genre cinema in the 1990s, with a command of character-driven tension.
Context & significance
Ghermez arrived at a moment when Iranian popular cinema was finding its footing with genre storytelling that spoke directly to urban, middle-class audiences. Jeyrani's film is part of a line of Iranian domestic thrillers that take the home itself as the site of danger rather than the street. For diaspora viewers who grew up watching the social realism of 1990s Iranian cinema, Ghermez offers a sharply observed portrait of gendered power dynamics in a setting that will feel both familiar and quietly unsettling. Tehrani's presence alone anchors the film in the tradition of Iranian actress-led dramas that prioritised emotional truth over spectacle.
Where & how to watch
Ghermez is available now on K-Time in its original Persian audio. No VPN is needed — K-Time streams with no geo-blocking to viewers anywhere in the world. Watch on the web, your TV, or your phone, and cancel anytime.