Director: Hossein Molayemi, Shirin Sohani
Cast: Zahra Moosavi
In the Shadow of the Cypress is a 2023 Iranian animated drama co-directed by Hossein Molayemi and Shirin Sohani, running twenty minutes. The film centers on a former sea captain living with post-traumatic stress disorder and his daughter, sharing a sparse coastal existence shaped by solitude, unspoken grief, and a love neither quite knows how to reach across.
What is In the Shadow of the Cypress about?
Along a remote stretch of coastline, a retired captain occupies a small house with his daughter. His years at sea left wounds that no one can see — a psychological burden that has gradually drawn him inward and built a wall between him and the child he loves. Their days run on a quiet, worn rhythm: the sound of water, the repetition of ordinary tasks, and glances that miss each other by just enough distance. He wants to be the father his daughter needs, but something inside him resists the warmth he intends to offer. Then one morning, without warning, something arrives at their door — an unexpected presence the sea seems to have delivered — and this single event compels both of them to look directly at each other, at their lives, and at what might still be possible between them.
The K-Time take
Molayemi and Sohani handle their subject with notable restraint. Rather than explaining the captain's condition through dialogue, the film lets its visual language do the heavier work — coastal fog, long pauses, the cypress tree standing at the edge of the frame as a kind of silent witness. The twenty-minute runtime is not a limitation but a discipline; the filmmakers trust that economy of means and precision of feeling are more powerful than elaboration.
Cast & crew
The film is co-directed by Hossein Molayemi and Shirin Sohani, two Iranian filmmakers whose joint sensibility merges visual precision with emotional attentiveness. The lead voice performance belongs to Zahra Moosavi, who brings a restrained quality to the daughter that keeps the film's emotional ground honest and grounded throughout.
Context & significance
Iranian animated short cinema has carved out a distinct reputation for tackling adult psychological terrain with seriousness and visual invention. In the Shadow of the Cypress fits that lineage, treating post-traumatic stress not as spectacle but as quiet, daily weather — something that shapes the texture of ordinary moments without dramatic announcement. For viewers in the Iranian diaspora, the family portrait here touches something recognizable: a parent whose emotional world was formed by hardship and silence, a child who interprets that silence as rejection, and the fragile possibility of reconnection. The cypress of the title carries particular weight in Persian cultural imagery — associated with mourning, endurance, and the vertical line between the earthly and the eternal. The film uses that symbolism with care rather than insistence.
Where & how to watch
In the Shadow of the Cypress is available on K-Time with original Persian audio. Watch on the web, your smart TV, or your Android phone — no VPN is required, no geo-blocking applies, and you can cancel your subscription anytime.