Director: Hamid Reza Ghorbani, Armin Arad

Cast: Parinaz Izadyar, Babak Hamidian, Javad Ezati

Maghze Ostekhan is a 2023 Iranian drama film directed by Hamid Reza Ghorbani and Armin Arad, starring Parinaz Izadyar, Babak Hamidian, and Javad Ezati. Running 107 minutes, the film examines a mother's struggle between loyalty, survival, and the impossible choices imposed on her by circumstance.

What is Maghze Ostekhan about?

Bahar has rebuilt her life after a painful divorce, remarrying and trying to move forward. Her young son from her first marriage is gravely ill with leukemia, and the cost of his treatment weighs heavily on her. Her former husband sits in prison facing execution for crimes committed in their shared past. As her son's condition worsens and time runs short, Bahar finds herself pulled back into a web of obligations and consequences she cannot escape. The film follows her as she confronts both the medical system and the legal realities surrounding her ex-husband's fate, searching for any path that keeps her son alive without destroying what remains of her own life.

Cast & crew

Parinaz Izadyar carries the emotional weight of the film as Bahar, bringing a restrained intensity to a woman holding multiple crises at once. Babak Hamidian and Javad Ezati provide strong support, grounding the film's more fraught dramatic moments in recognizable human texture. All three are well-established figures in contemporary Iranian cinema.

Context & significance

Iranian social drama has long explored the ways family structures, legal systems, and economic pressure bear down on women caught between worlds. Maghze Ostekhan sits squarely in this tradition — a film that takes the specificities of post-divorce life, child illness, and criminal justice seriously rather than using them as background color. For diaspora viewers, the film speaks directly to anxieties familiar from life both inside and outside Iran: what you owe your children, what you owe yourself, and whether the two can coexist. Drama of this kind travels well because its emotional logic is universal even when its bureaucratic details are distinctly Iranian.

Where & how to watch

Maghze Ostekhan is available to watch on K-Time with Persian subtitles. Stream it on the web, your TV, or your phone — no VPN needed, no geo-blocking, and no extra download required. Start a subscription and cancel anytime.