Director: Hossein Rigi

Cast: Mehran Ahmadi, Behnaz Jafari, Houman Barghnavard, Amin Miri, arzou tajnia

Lipar is a 2025 Iranian drama-family film directed by Hossein Rigi, set against the sun-scorched landscapes of Sistan and Baluchestan. It follows a Baluchi teenager whose consuming passion for cinema — fed almost entirely by Bollywood films — collides with the realities of life on the margins of modern Iran.

What is Lipar about?

Barakat is a restless young man growing up in one of Iran's most remote provinces, where the rhythm of daily life rarely accommodates grand ambitions. His inner world, however, overflows with images borrowed from Bollywood: the song-and-dance spectacle, the colour, the emotional sweep. For Barakat, those films do not merely entertain — they hold answers to questions he has carried since childhood, about beauty, belonging, and what a life spent creating something might feel like. When the possibility of actually making a film begins to take shape, he must reckon with the gap between fantasy and the practical weight of where and who he is. The film moves slowly and honestly through his world, never sensationalising poverty or exoticising Baluchi culture, letting Barakat's longing speak for itself.

Cast & crew

Mehran Ahmadi and Behnaz Jafari lead the cast alongside Houman Barghnavard, Amin Miri, and Arzou Tajnia. Jafari, one of the most recognisable faces in contemporary Iranian cinema, brings grounded warmth to her role. Director Hossein Rigi draws restrained, naturalistic performances from the ensemble, allowing the non-metropolitan setting and its people to carry equal dramatic weight.

Context & significance

Films from Iran's peripheral provinces have a long and honoured tradition in the country's art cinema — from the villages of Kiarostami to the borders explored by Ghobadi. Lipar continues that lineage by turning its camera toward Sistan and Baluchestan, a region rarely seen on screen yet home to a rich Baluchi cultural identity. For diaspora viewers, the film offers something rarely available abroad: an unhurried, insider look at a corner of Iran that neither state media nor mainstream commercial cinema typically portrays. Its focus on a young person's creative longing also speaks to a universal diaspora experience — the hunger to make something lasting when the structures around you were not built with you in mind.

Where & how to watch

Lipar is available on K-Time with original Persian-language audio. Stream it on the web, on your TV, or on your phone — no geo-blocking, no VPN needed, and you can cancel anytime.