Director: Navid Beh Touiy
Cast: Pegah Ahangarani, Reza Davoodnejad, Maral Baniadam, Hossein Soufian, Shabnam Goodarzi
Gisoum is a 2023 Iranian drama film written and directed by Navid Beh Touiy, running approximately 90 minutes. Set against the rhythms of nature and human endurance, the film uses the image of the robin — a bird that stays through winter rather than migrating — as a lens for examining resilience, belonging, and the quiet courage it takes to remain.
What is Gisoum about?
The story unfolds around a group of people whose lives intersect in a village or town named Gisoum, a place where seasons change but people are expected to hold their ground. Unlike birds that flee the cold, the characters are bound to their roots — by choice, by circumstance, or by love. Each person faces pressures that test whether staying is strength or simply the only option left. The film draws its emotional core from small, everyday moments: a conversation at a doorstep, a meal shared under difficult conditions, a silence that says more than words. Beh Touiy keeps the narrative grounded, resisting melodrama in favor of observed, human truth. The premise poses a quiet but persistent question about what it means to endure rather than escape.
Cast & crew
The film stars Pegah Ahangarani, one of Iranian cinema's most recognized dramatic actresses, alongside Reza Davoodnejad and Maral Baniadam. The ensemble is rounded out by Hossein Soufian, Shabnam Goodarzi, Salman Farkhondeh, and Shahrokh Foroutanian — a cast that brings depth and earned familiarity to the story's intimate, community-focused drama. Director Beh Touiy draws restrained, grounded performances from the entire group.
Context & significance
Gisoum takes its name and spirit from a forested, rain-soaked region of Gilan province in northern Iran — a landscape immediately recognizable to Iranians who grew up near the Caspian coast and deeply evocative for those in the diaspora who carry that geography in memory. The film belongs to a quiet current in contemporary Iranian cinema that resists spectacle in favor of texture: small lives rendered with patience and honesty. For Persian-speaking viewers abroad, this kind of drama carries particular weight — it speaks to the experience of choosing where to root yourself when the world keeps offering reasons to leave. The robin motif, a bird that endures the cold rather than flying south, gives the film a gentle, recurring emotional argument that resonates far beyond its specific setting.
Where & how to watch
Gisoum is available on K-Time with Persian subtitles. Watch on the web, your TV, or your phone — no VPN needed, no geo-blocking, and no extra download required. Start a subscription and cancel anytime.