Director: Mohammad Sajjad Motaharizadeh
Cast: Mohammad Shisheh Foroush, Roya Zirak Ghashghaei, Nazanin Amini, Hasti Bajelani, Pourya Jamali
Nabarde Sayeha (Battle of Shadows) is a 2023 Iranian short drama film directed by Mohammad Sajjad Motaharizadeh, running approximately eleven minutes. It centers on two characters, Yahya and Goli, whose path toward each other is blocked by forces that push them both toward choices they would not otherwise make.
What is Nabarde Sayeha about?
Yahya and Goli are drawn toward one another, yet obstacles keep rising between them. Rather than stepping back and finding a measured path, both are pulled into decisions that cross lines — acts they take hoping to clear the way, not foreseeing where those acts will lead. The film, compressed into a brief runtime, focuses on that tension: the gap between what people want, what they are willing to do, and what they ultimately set in motion. Motaharizadeh uses the short form to strip the story to its essentials — two people, a barrier, and the shadow that falls between good intention and wrong action.
Cast & crew
The film is directed by Mohammad Sajjad Motaharizadeh. Mohammad Shisheh Foroush and Roya Zirak Ghashghaei play the central roles of Yahya and Goli. The supporting cast includes Nazanin Amini, Hasti Bajelani, and Pourya Jamali. All performers work within the compact structure the short format demands.
Context & significance
Iranian short cinema has a long tradition of treating intimate human conflict with the same care given to feature-length productions. Nabarde Sayeha sits within a lineage of Iranian drama shorts that distill a moral question into a very small frame — not unlike the short fiction tradition of the country's literary culture. For diaspora viewers, the film offers a window into contemporary Iranian storytelling outside of the commercial mainstream: smaller, quieter, and built around character rather than spectacle. The title's play on shadows — as both opponents and inner states — reflects a recurring motif in Iranian drama where external conflict and internal condition mirror each other.
Where & how to watch
Nabarde Sayeha is available on K-Time. The film is in Persian with no added dubbing or subtitles — original audio throughout. You can watch on the web, on your TV, or on your phone, with no VPN needed, no geo-blocking, and the option to cancel anytime.