Director: Alireza Raeisian
Cast: Leila Hatami, Ali Mosafa, Farhad Aslani, Amir Aghaiy, Gohar Kheirandish
Mardi Bedoone Sayeh (A Man Without a Shadow) is a 2020 Iranian drama film directed by Alireza Raeisian, starring Leila Hatami and Ali Mosaffa. The film follows a documentary filmmaker whose work on violence quietly reshapes the boundaries of his own life and relationships.
What is Mardi Bedoone Sayeh about?
Mahan Kooshan is a documentary filmmaker who has spent years chronicling the darkest corners of human violence. When his latest project brings him into contact with the lives of martyrs and their grieving families, the emotional weight of the material begins to seep into his personal world. A woman he encounters during his research gradually draws him in, and what begins as professional observation edges toward something far more complicated. The film unfolds slowly and deliberately, charting how the act of witnessing suffering can transform the witness himself — blurring the line between empathy and obsession, between documenting a life and stepping into it.
Cast & crew
Leila Hatami, one of Iranian cinema's most acclaimed performers, brings quiet authority to her role opposite Ali Mosaffa, known internationally for his work in The Past. Farhad Aslani, Amir Aghaiy, Gohar Kheirandish, Nader Fallah, and Siamak Atlasi round out an ensemble that collectively brings decades of Iranian stage and screen experience to the project.
Context & significance
Alireza Raeisian has long been associated with Iranian arthouse drama, and Mardi Bedoone Sayeh sits firmly in that tradition — a quiet, introspective film that uses the documentary-within-a-film conceit to examine guilt, memory, and the ethics of bearing witness. For diaspora viewers who grew up watching the measured, character-driven drama that defined Iranian cinema internationally from the 1990s onward, this film feels like a continuation of that legacy. It asks uncomfortable questions about how proximity to tragedy changes us, and whether a person can remain a neutral observer of pain.
Where & how to watch
Mardi Bedoone Sayeh is available on K-Time in its original Persian audio. Watch on your browser, connected TV, or phone with no VPN needed and no geo-blocking. Membership can be cancelled anytime.