Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Cast: Babek Ahmedpoor, Ahmed Ahmedpoor, Khodabakhsh Defaei
Khaneye Doust Kodjast (Where Is the Friend's Home?) is a 1987 Iranian drama film directed by Abbas Kiarostami, following a young boy's determined journey through the hills of northern Iran to return a classmate's notebook — a deceptively simple quest that unfolds into a profound meditation on childhood responsibility and moral courage.
What is Khaneye Doust Kodjast about?
Eight-year-old Ahmad accidentally picks up his classmate Mohammad's homework notebook at the end of the school day. Knowing that Mohammad will face expulsion if he shows up without it the next morning, Ahmad resolves to return it before dark. His search takes him from his home village of Koker across winding mountain paths to the neighboring village of Poshteh, where he encounters a series of adults — each too busy, too dismissive, or simply unable to help. The film follows every twist and false lead of that single afternoon, building quiet suspense from the purest of premises.
The K-Time take
Kiarostami strips cinema down to its essentials here: a child, a landscape, and an urgent errand. The film's power comes not from drama manufactured from without but from the weight a small act of conscience carries when the whole world seems indifferent. It remains one of world cinema's most quietly devastating studies of childhood ethics.
Cast & crew
Abbas Kiarostami, one of the most celebrated directors in Iranian cinema's history, uses first-time and largely non-professional child performers. Babek Ahmedpoor carries the film entirely on his shoulders as Ahmad, projecting a determination that feels wholly unperformed. Ahmed Ahmedpoor and Khodabakhsh Defaei fill out the village world with the kind of lived-in naturalism that defines the Koker trilogy.
Context & significance
Released in 1987, this film was the first installment in Kiarostami's celebrated Koker trilogy, later followed by And Life Goes On and Through the Olive Trees. Set in the real villages of Gilan province, it introduced international audiences to the poetic-realist strain of post-revolution Iranian cinema. For the Iranian diaspora, the film carries a layered resonance: it documents a northern rural Iran many families remember from childhood trips or family stories, and it does so with no sentimentality and no condescension — only unflinching care. The film's journey across the olive-covered hills of Gilan became an enduring image of Iranian identity in world cinema.
Where & how to watch
Khaneye Doust Kodjast is available on K-Time in its original Persian audio without Persian subtitles. Watch directly in your browser or on your TV and phone — no VPN required, no geo-blocking, no extra download needed. Subscribe and cancel anytime.