Director: Setareh Eskandari
Cast: Pejman Bazeghi, Nazanin Farahani, Maryam Boubani, Amirhossein Hashemi, Banafsheh Samadi
Khorshide Aan Mah is a 2023 Iranian drama film directed by Setareh Eskandari, set in the remote landscapes of Sistan and Baluchistan in southeastern Iran. The film follows a Baloch widow navigating silence, social constraint, and the quiet stirring of a love that her community refuses to accept.
What is Khorshide Aan Mah about?
Biban is a Baloch widow living under the roof of her late husband's family in the isolated southeast of Iran. To cope with the weight of grief and social pressure, she makes a striking choice: she stops speaking entirely. Her world shrinks to the boundaries of the household she shares with her young son Miran, and to the unspoken rules of a traditional community that watches her every move. When Hamraz — a man she knew in childhood — returns to the village after years away, something long-buried stirs in Biban. The warmth between them grows quietly, almost secretly, but it cannot remain hidden. Those around her, from family to neighbors, close ranks against the possibility that a widow might choose her own path forward. The film traces how Biban holds onto her sense of self while the forces around her work to extinguish it.
Cast & crew
Director Setareh Eskandari brings an observational, patient eye to the material — a sensibility well-suited to this story of silence and interiority. Pejman Bazeghi, one of Iranian cinema's most recognizable character actors, plays a key supporting role, while Nazanin Farahani carries the central drama with restraint. The ensemble includes Maryam Boubani, Amirhossein Hashemi, Banafsheh Samadi, Rozhin Sadrzadeh, Sadegh Sohrabi, and Mahtab Jami.
Context & significance
For Iranian diaspora viewers, Khorshide Aan Mah opens a window into a region of Iran that rarely appears on screen: Sistan and Baluchistan, a southeastern province with its own cultural fabric, Baloch traditions, and social codes that differ markedly from the Tehran-centric stories most audiences know. The film belongs to a quiet tradition of Iranian social dramas that center women's inner lives within systems that barely acknowledge their personhood. This genre — patient, visually spare, emotionally honest — has long been a signature of Iranian art cinema, and this film works squarely within that lineage. For viewers who grew up in Iran or who carry memories of its landscapes and family structures, the film's textures will feel intimate and charged. For those discovering Baloch culture for the first time, it is a careful, respectful introduction.
Where & how to watch
Khorshide Aan Mah is available on K-Time with original Persian audio. You can watch on the web browser, Android TV, or your phone — no VPN needed, no geo-blocking, no extra download. Start watching anytime and cancel anytime.