Director: Ali Tavakkoli

Cast: Banafsheh Riazi, Ebrahim Azizi, Homayoun Hejazi, Mohammad Ashkanfar, Mojdeh Daei

Kaboud is a 2020 Iranian short film directed by Ali Tavakkoli, running approximately nineteen minutes. It examines the psychology of concealment — how fear, not calculation, can drive a person to bury the truth — through restrained, intimate storytelling anchored in a Persian domestic setting.

What is Kaboud about?

When something goes wrong within the quiet boundaries of an ordinary life, the instinct to cover it up takes hold — not through cold strategy but through raw, paralysing dread. The film follows characters bound together by a shared secret, each one more afraid of what exposure will bring than of the weight of silence itself. As tension accumulates in small, unspoken moments, the story asks whether concealment offers any real shelter, or whether the act of hiding shapes those who hide as much as whatever it is they are hiding from. The premise is spare and the runtime tight, letting atmosphere and performance carry the emotional load.

Cast & crew

Director Ali Tavakkoli leads a compact ensemble that includes Banafsheh Riazi, Ebrahim Azizi, Homayoun Hejazi, Mohammad Ashkanfar, and Mojdeh Daei. Short-form Iranian cinema often depends on its actors to communicate interior states with minimal dialogue, and this cast brings disciplined restraint to a story that lives in glances and silences rather than exposition.

Context & significance

Short films occupy a vital corner of Iranian cinema — they are frequently where emerging directors develop a distinct voice before moving to feature length, and they circulate through international festivals, keeping Persian-language storytelling visible on a global stage. Kaboud fits into a tradition of psychological Iranian shorts that favour mood and moral ambiguity over plot mechanics. For diaspora viewers, this kind of film offers a compressed but emotionally complete portrait of contemporary Iranian experience: family pressure, unspoken shame, and the cost of maintaining appearances. At nineteen minutes it rewards a single focused sitting and rewards repeated viewing as well.

Where & how to watch

Kaboud is available on K-Time in its original Persian audio with subtitles. Watch on the web, on your TV, or on your phone — no VPN required, no geo-blocking, no extra download needed. Start anytime and cancel anytime.