Mosafer (The Traveler) is a 1974 Iranian drama film directed by Abbas Kiarostami, one of his earliest works and a clear signal of the humanist visual storytelling that would define his career. The film follows a young boy from a provincial town whose singular obsession drives him to extraordinary lengths.

What is Mosafer Kiarostami about?

A schoolboy in a small Iranian town becomes consumed by the desire to attend a football match in Tehran. To raise the money he needs, he embarks on a series of schemes — conning neighbors, deceiving classmates, and cutting corners at every turn. The camera stays close to his face, tracking the logic of a child who cannot distinguish want from need. The journey toward the capital becomes both literal and moral, a road story about the price a person pays when desire overrides conscience. Kiarostami withholds judgment; the film simply observes, with patience and precision, how far a young boy will go for something he has decided matters.

Cast & crew

Abbas Kiarostami both directed and wrote Mosafer, marking one of his first features produced through the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (Kanoon). The lead role is carried by Hassan Darabi, a non-professional child actor whose unguarded performance gives the film its quiet, unsettling authenticity.

Context & significance

Made in 1974, just before the Iranian Revolution reshaped the country's cultural landscape, Mosafer belongs to a remarkable period when Iranian cinema was beginning to find a language of its own — grounded in everyday life, using real locations and non-actors. For diaspora viewers, the film offers a window into a pre-revolution Iran that feels both distant and deeply familiar: the dusty provincial streets, the weight of class and ambition, the gap between a child's world and the adult world that surrounds it. Kiarostami's restrained style asks viewers to sit with discomfort rather than resolve it, a quality that made Iranian cinema internationally distinctive in the decades that followed.

Where & how to watch

Mosafer is available on K-Time in its original Persian audio with Persian dubbing. Watch directly in your browser, on your TV, or on your phone — no VPN needed, no geo-blocking, and no extra download required. Cancel your subscription anytime.