Director: seyed mojtaba tabatabaei

Cast: Javad Taheri, Majid Amiri, Soheila Moghaghi, Mehdi Mirghiasi, Morteza Jalali

Okht Al Reza is a 2023 Iranian drama-documentary film directed by Seyed Mojtaba Tabatabaei, recounting the historical pilgrimage of Hazrat Masoumeh from Madinah to Qom — blending devotional narrative with political and social chronicle from the Abbasid era.

What is Okht Al Reza about?

In the early ninth century, under the shadow of Caliph Mamun's court and its calculated intrigue, a woman of immense spiritual standing undertakes an arduous journey across vast desert terrain. Hazrat Masoumeh, sister of Imam Reza, leaves Madinah bound for Khorasan, seeking reunion with her brother. The road ahead is shaped by danger — political forces hostile to her family work to obstruct and undermine the caravan at every turn. The film weaves together the intimate personal struggle of the journey with the broader atmosphere of power, faith, and resistance that defined that moment in Shia history. Told with a documentary-inflected eye, the story builds its emotional weight through the quiet dignity of its central figure rather than spectacle.

Cast & crew

Director Seyed Mojtaba Tabatabaei leads a cast rooted in Iranian dramatic television and film. Javad Taheri, Majid Amiri, and Soheila Moghaghi anchor the supporting ensemble, joined by Mehdi Mirghiasi, Morteza Jalali, and Hamid Lajvardi. Each brings a naturalistic register that suits the film's measured, quasi-documentary visual language.

Context & significance

For Iranians in the diaspora — many of whom carry deep ties to the devotional culture surrounding the Ahlul Bayt — Okht Al Reza offers an unusually considered cinematic engagement with a beloved historical figure. Hazrat Masoumeh holds a singular place in Persian Shia identity; her shrine in Qom remains one of the most visited in the world. Films that trace her life are rare, and this production approaches the subject with solemnity and historical texture rather than hagiographic simplification. Viewers familiar with Shia devotional storytelling will recognise the genre's characteristic blend of piety and political allegory — here applied to the Abbasid era's suppression of the Imam's family. The film's restrained, documentary-adjacent aesthetic sets it apart from earlier religious epics.

Where & how to watch

Okht Al Reza is available on K-Time. The film is presented in its original Persian audio with subtitles. Stream it on the web, on your TV, or on your phone — no VPN needed, no geo-blocking, cancel anytime.