Director: Keyvan Alimohammadi, Omid Bonakdar
Cast: Pejman Bazeghi, Azadeh Zareiy, Saam Gharibiyan, Mina Vahid, Elahe Hesari
Highlight is a 2020 Iranian drama film co-directed by Keyvan Alimohammadi and Omid Bonakdar, running 80 minutes and earning an 8.0 on IMDb. It opens with a violent road crash on the northern highways of Iran and unravels the hidden lives of two people who survive it.
What is Highlight about?
Two strangers — a man and a woman — are found unconscious after a severe collision on the forested roads of northern Iran. When emergency services alert their respective spouses, the families are forced to confront a question neither was prepared for: why were these two people travelling together in the same car? As the injured lie in a coma and their fates hang in the balance, long-buried secrets surface between the four characters. The film follows the spouses as they piece together evidence, negotiate shock and suspicion, and face truths about the people they thought they knew. Bonakdar and Alimohammadi let tension build slowly, keeping the audience in the same state of uncertain waiting as the characters themselves.
The K-Time take
Highlight is a restrained, psychologically grounded drama that trusts its premise to do the heavy lifting. The two directors maintain an even tone — no melodrama, no easy resolution — and the ensemble cast responds with quiet, measured performances. At 80 minutes, the film moves efficiently without feeling rushed, and its northern Iran setting adds a layer of atmosphere that suits the mood of suppressed emotion and unspoken history.
Cast & crew
Pejman Bazeghi and Azadeh Zareiy anchor the film as the spouses at the centre of the crisis, both delivering controlled performances that hold considerable emotional weight. The ensemble also features Saam Gharibiyan, Mina Vahid, Elahe Hesari, Yazdan Fotohi, Shiva Taheri, and the veteran Jamshid Hashempour, whose presence lends the film additional gravity.
Context & significance
Iranian drama of the 2010s and early 2020s found an enduring audience among diaspora viewers partly because it reflects social realities — marriage, trust, class, the weight of unspoken things — that resonate across borders. Highlight fits squarely in a lineage of domestic dramas that favour restraint over spectacle. For Persian-speaking viewers abroad, films like this often serve as both entertainment and a means of staying connected to contemporary Iranian storytelling. The northern Iranian landscape — the dense forest roads, the overcast skies — is itself a recurring visual motif in this tradition, one that carries a particular emotional charge for anyone who grew up in or near those regions.
Where & how to watch
Highlight is available now on K-Time with original Persian audio. Watch on the web, on your TV, or on your phone — no VPN needed, no geo-blocking, cancel anytime. No extra download required.