Is this a film irani ya foreign?

Mashghe Shab is fully Iranian, produced by Kanoon in Tehran in 1989. The language is Persian and every participant is an Iranian schoolboy filmed on location in Iran.

Koja bebinam Mashghe Shab online?

You can stream it on K-Time — available on the web browser, Android TV, and Android phone. No extra download needed, no VPN, just sign in and watch.

Is Mashghe Shab suitable for families?

Yes. The film is entirely child-appropriate — it features primary-school children as its subjects and carries no mature content. It is an excellent watch for families and anyone curious about Iranian cinema history.

Mashghe Shab

Name: Mashghe Shab
Genre: Documentary
Released: 1989
Duration: 86 min
Cast: Babak Ahmadpoor, Farhang Akhavan, Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, Abbas Kiarostami, Iraj Safavi

Director: Abbas Kiarostami

Cast: Babak Ahmadpoor, Farhang Akhavan, Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, Abbas Kiarostami, Iraj Safavi

Mashghe Shab is a 1989 Iranian documentary film directed by Abbas Kiarostami, examining the daily reality of homework through candid conversations with schoolboys in Tehran. Running 86 minutes, it stands as one of Kiarostami's most intimate and quietly subversive observations of Iranian childhood.

What is Mashghe Shab about?

A group of primary-school boys in Iran face the camera one by one and speak openly about their relationship with evening study assignments. Some confess they rarely finish; others describe elaborate systems of copying from classmates or enlisting older siblings. Through their unguarded honesty, Kiarostami builds a portrait not just of homework pressure but of the small negotiations, fears, and private strategies that shape a child's daily inner world. The school setting becomes a lens onto family life, parental expectations, and the gap between what adults demand and what children actually experience.

The K-Time take

Kiarostami's method here is disarming in its simplicity: point a camera at a child and ask a direct question. The result is a film that feels closer to a confessional booth than a classroom. The boys' answers — sheepish, defiant, occasionally hilarious — accumulate into something unexpectedly moving, a document of universal childhood anxiety expressed entirely in Iranian terms.

Cast & crew

Abbas Kiarostami, who both directed and appears on screen, anchors the film with his characteristic low-key presence behind and in front of the camera. The cast of young participants includes Babak Ahmadpoor, Farhang Akhavan, Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, and Iraj Safavi, all non-professional child subjects whose unscripted candor drives every scene.

Context & significance

Produced by the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (Kanoon), Mashghe Shab belongs to a remarkable body of Kanoon-era cinema in which filmmakers used childhood as a mirror for broader social truths in Iran. For diaspora audiences, the film carries a powerful nostalgia — the classrooms, the uniforms, the very texture of the school day recall a shared pre-revolution and post-revolution memory. Kiarostami's documentaries from this period are essential viewing for anyone who wants to understand where his later internationally celebrated fiction work grew from.

Where & how to watch

Mashghe Shab is available on K-Time. The film is in Persian with no dubbed audio track; English subtitles are available. Watch on the web, your TV, or your phone — no VPN required, no geo-blocking, cancel anytime.