Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Cast: Shohreh Aghdashloo, Kurosh Afsharpanah, Mehdi Montazar, Mostafa Tari, Hashem Arkan
Gozaresh (The Report) is a 1977 Iranian drama film directed by Abbas Kiarostami, following a mid-level government tax collector whose professional misconduct accusations collide with a deteriorating personal life, producing a portrait of quiet desperation in pre-revolutionary Tehran.
What is Gozaresh about?
A bureaucrat employed as a tax inspector finds himself caught between mounting workplace pressure and domestic crisis. Colleagues have reported him for allegedly accepting bribes, and an official investigation threatens to unravel his career. Meanwhile, at home, his marriage has reached a breaking point — his wife, overwhelmed by stress and unhappiness, makes a desperate and dangerous choice. Kiarostami refuses easy resolutions: the film tracks its protagonist through corridors of government offices and cramped apartment rooms with the same patient, observational gaze, revealing how systemic pressures and private failures feed each other. The story remains deliberately ambiguous about guilt and innocence, making the viewer weigh evidence alongside the characters rather than handing out verdicts.
Cast & crew
Abbas Kiarostami directs from his own script, years before his international breakthrough. Shohreh Aghdashloo, later celebrated for her work in Western productions, plays the wife with restrained intensity. Kurosh Afsharpanah leads as the beleaguered tax collector, supported by Mehdi Montazar, Mostafa Tari, Hashem Arkan, Mohamed-Bagher Tavakoh, Tahnaz Esmaili, and Bennoosh Rodpoor.
Context & significance
Made in 1977, just before the Iranian Revolution transformed the country, Gozaresh belongs to a remarkable period of Iranian New Wave cinema when filmmakers were exploring social realism with documentary-inflected techniques. Kiarostami was already developing the elliptical, humanist style that would later make him one of the most discussed directors in world cinema. For diaspora viewers, the film operates on two levels: as a vivid record of everyday life and bureaucratic culture in late Pahlavi Iran, and as a timeless study of how institutions grind individuals down. Watching it today, Iranian viewers abroad often find unexpected echoes of pressures familiar across generations and geographies.
Where & how to watch
Gozaresh is available on K-Time in its original Persian-language audio. No VPN required, no extra download, and no geo-blocking — stream it on your TV, computer, or phone. Subscription includes access to the full catalog; cancel anytime.