Is Khane Siyah Ast available online with English subtitles?

On K-Time the film streams with its original Persian audio and Persian subtitles. The narration by Farrokhzad is in Persian; the film's power translates across any language through its imagery alone.

koja bebinam filme Khane Siyah Ast — koja stream mishe?

You can watch it directly on K-Time at ktime.app — no extra download, no VPN. It plays on your browser, Android TV device, or phone in standard definition with its full original audio.

Chi chizi Khane Siyah Ast ro mohem mikone baraye cinema irani?

It was the first film by a major Iranian poet and one of the first Iranian documentaries to win an international award. It established a humanist tradition of observational filmmaking that later directors built their entire careers on.

How long is Khane Siyah Ast and is it suitable for younger viewers?

The film runs approximately twenty minutes. It contains unflinching images of leprosy and physical difference; parents may want to watch first. There is no violence or explicit content — the tone is contemplative and deeply respectful throughout.

Khane Siyah Ast

Name: Khane Siyah Ast
Genre: Documentary
Released: 1963
Duration: 20 min
Cast: Ebrahim Golestan, Forugh Farrokhzad, Hossein Mansouri

Director: Forugh Farrokhzad

Cast: Ebrahim Golestan, Forugh Farrokhzad, Hossein Mansouri

Khane Siyah Ast (The House Is Black) is a 1963 Iranian documentary directed by Forugh Farrokhzad, produced by Ebrahim Golestan, and filmed inside the Bababaghi leprosy colony near Tabriz. In just twenty minutes, it reshaped what Iranian cinema could say — and how it dared to say it.

What is Khane Siyah Ast about?

Farrokhzad enters a leprosarium on the outskirts of Tabriz and trains her camera on the daily rhythms of the people who live there — washing, praying, eating, playing, teaching children in a makeshift classroom. She does not position them as objects of pity. Instead, she observes with the steady patience of someone who sees full human beings where society prefers to look away. Alongside her own spare, poetic narration, passages from the Old Testament and from Naser Khosrow anchor the images in a centuries-long tradition of moral witness. The film never announces its argument; it simply shows ordinary life unfolding inside an extraordinary margin, and lets that juxtaposition carry the weight.

The K-Time take

Shot in a single trip and edited with radical economy, the film carries an emotional force that far exceeds its brief runtime. Farrokhzad's voice-over — measured, never sentimental — transforms documentary footage into something closer to verse. The tension between beautiful cinematography and the physical suffering on screen does not feel exploitative; it insists on the full dignity of every face. Decades after its making, the film remains a touchstone for filmmakers across the world who believe that documentary can be art without sacrificing truth.

Cast & crew

Forugh Farrokhzad, one of the foremost Persian poets of the twentieth century, wrote and directed the film, also providing the narration. Ebrahim Golestan, the celebrated filmmaker and writer who ran the Golestan Film Workshop, produced the project and gave Farrokhzad the creative latitude that made it possible. Hossein Mansouri served as cinematographer, capturing the colony's intimate spaces with restraint.

Context & significance

For the Iranian diaspora, Khane Siyah Ast carries a significance beyond documentary history. Farrokhzad was a poet first — her collections Reborn and Another Birth redefined Persian verse — and this film extends the same unflinching gaze into moving image. Made in an era when Iranian cinema was still finding its international footing, it won the Best Documentary prize at the 1963 Oberhausen Short Film Festival in West Germany and is now ranked among the greatest short films ever produced. Diaspora viewers often encounter it as the missing link between classical Persian literature and the neorealist wave that would define Iranian art cinema in the decades that followed.

Where & how to watch

Khane Siyah Ast is available to stream on K-Time with original Persian-language audio and Persian subtitles. Watch on your browser, Android TV, or phone — no VPN required, no geo-blocking, cancel anytime.