Director: Siamak Shayeghi
Cast: Parvaneh Masoumi, Hadi Eslami, Iraj Tasmaseb, Fatemi Moetamedaria, Fahimeh Rastkar
Jahizieh Baraye Robaab is a 1987 Iranian drama film directed by Siamak Shayeghi, set in a pearl-diving coastal community where a father's struggle to secure his daughter's dowry becomes a story of sacrifice, love, and the weight of tradition on a family living at the edge of the sea.
What is Jahizieh Baraye Robaab about?
Robaab is engaged to her cousin Kamel, but the match comes with a price — Kamel's mother insists the bride's family provide a full dowry before the wedding can proceed. Robaab's father, Ali Veys, is a pearl diver already weakened by a chronic respiratory illness, yet he pushes himself back into the water to find pearls that can fund his daughter's future. Meanwhile, Robaab's brother Khadem secretly joins his friend Khadr out on the sea, hidden from their ailing father, determined to help gather what the family needs. The two efforts — one driven by parental duty, one by brotherly devotion — converge on the same dangerous waters, and the stakes grow heavier with every dive.
Cast & crew
Director Siamak Shayeghi brings a quiet realist sensibility to the film. Parvaneh Masoumi leads the cast in the role of Robaab, with Hadi Eslami and Iraj Tasmaseb among the supporting players. Fatemi Moetamedaria and Fahimeh Rastkar round out the ensemble, grounding the domestic and maritime drama in lived-in performances.
Context & significance
Made in 1987 during the Iran-Iraq War era, Jahizieh Baraye Robaab belongs to a tradition of Iranian social-realist cinema that turns the lens on rural and working-class communities rarely seen on screen. The pearl-diving milieu — rooted in Persian Gulf coastal life — carries its own cultural weight for diaspora viewers whose families came from southern Iran. The film speaks to the intersection of economic hardship, patriarchal custom, and filial loyalty: familiar tensions for many Iranian families regardless of where they now live. For the diaspora, it is a window into a world that shaped a generation before the great migration.
Where & how to watch
Jahizieh Baraye Robaab is available on K-Time in original Persian audio. No VPN is needed and there is no geo-blocking — watch on the web, your TV, or your phone, and cancel anytime.