Director: Amirhosein Khabazzadeh Haghighi
Cast: Haniyeh Kohandelshirazi, Mohammad Dehghani, Azadeh Afsari, Maryam Keshavarz
Knock Out is a 2021 Iranian action short film directed by Amirhosein Khabazzadeh Haghighi, running just seventeen minutes and packing the emotional weight of a feature. It follows a man who once stood at the top of amateur boxing, lost everything to a prison sentence, and must step back into the ring one last time.
What is Knock Out about?
When a man who built his identity around boxing walks out of prison, the world outside has moved on without him. His body carries the years; the sport he loved waits at the end of a long road back. The only thing pulling him forward is a vow he made to his daughter — something he said he would do, something she is still waiting to see him honor. With minimal resources and a bruised reputation, he begins training again, navigating both the physical demands of the ring and the emotional weight of a broken family bond. The story is spare and focused, letting its central character carry the drama through action rather than exposition.
Cast & crew
The film is directed by Amirhosein Khabazzadeh Haghighi, a short-film practitioner working in genre cinema within Iran. Lead performances are delivered by Haniyeh Kohandelshirazi, Mohammad Dehghani, Azadeh Afsari, and Maryam Keshavarz, a cast that keeps the register grounded and the emotional beats credible across the film's compact runtime.
Context & significance
Short-form Iranian genre cinema rarely reaches diaspora audiences, which makes Knock Out a small but meaningful discovery. Action films produced in Iran often work within tight budgets and lean on performance and premise rather than spectacle — a tradition that rewards attentive viewers. For Persian-speaking audiences abroad, a boxing story about redemption, fatherhood, and the cost of absence resonates beyond sports: it speaks to the particular grief of time lost and the effort required to reclaim a place in someone's life. At seventeen minutes, Knock Out asks very little of your evening and delivers a self-contained emotional arc.
Where & how to watch
Knock Out is available on K-Time with Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles. Stream it on your web browser, smart TV, or Android phone with no VPN needed and no geographic restrictions. Subscription can be cancelled anytime.