Director: Ida Panahandeh
Cast: Hediyeh Tehrani, Pejman Bazeghi, Merila Zarei, Hoda Zeinolabedin, Ali Omrani
Israfil is a 2017 Iranian drama-romance film directed by Ida Panahandeh, exploring the fragile boundary between grief, lost love, and life's unfinished chapters. Shot in Iran, the film stars Hediyeh Tehrani and Pejman Bazeghi in an emotionally restrained story about two people whose paths collide again after years apart.
What is Israfil about?
A woman named Mahi is shattered by the sudden death of her young son in a traffic accident. Around this same period, Behrouz — a man from Mahi's past who has long lived abroad — returns to Iran to settle property affairs before relocating to Canada with his new fiancée, Sara. As the two former lovers are drawn together by circumstance and shared history, buried feelings resurface. Neither has resolved what was left unfinished between them, and the weight of that unresolved past presses against the plans each has made for the future. Panahandeh builds the tension slowly, letting the silences carry what the characters cannot say aloud.
Cast & crew
Director Ida Panahandeh previously drew international notice with her debut feature Nahid (2015). Hediyeh Tehrani, one of Iranian cinema's most respected lead actresses, anchors the film's emotional core. Pejman Bazeghi delivers a measured performance as the returning Behrouz, while Merila Zarei and Hoda Zeinolabedin appear in supporting roles that add texture to the story's social world.
Context & significance
Iranian dramatic cinema has a long tradition of exploring love and loss through quiet, observational storytelling rather than melodrama, and Israfil fits squarely within that lineage. For diaspora viewers who grew up watching Hediyeh Tehrani, her presence alone carries significant cultural weight. The film's themes — a life paused by death, the pull of a former life back in Iran, the question of belonging when you have built something elsewhere — will resonate deeply with Iranians who have navigated similar tensions between the country they left and the one they have built abroad. It is precisely the kind of intimate Iranian drama that speaks to the personal, not the political.
Where & how to watch
Israfil is available on K-Time in its original Persian audio. No VPN is needed and there is no geo-blocking — watch on the web, on your TV, or on your phone with one subscription. Cancel anytime.