Director: Kiumars Pourahmad

Cast: Pejman Bazeghi, Hossein Pakdel, Sam Gharibian, Nasim Adabi, Ali Bagheri

Parvandeh Baz Ast is a 2023 Iranian drama film directed by Kiumars Pourahmad, drawing on a real high-profile criminal case from 1980s Iran. The film follows a fifteen-year-old accused of murder as the justice system weighs his fate, raising hard questions about youth, accountability, and a society in flux.

What is Parvandeh Baz Ast about?

Set against the charged atmosphere of 1980s Iran, the film centers on a teenage boy whose life takes a catastrophic turn when he becomes entangled in a killing. As the courtroom proceedings unfold, the story pulls back to reveal the fractured family circumstances, social pressures, and moral ambiguities that shaped him. The prosecution builds its case while those close to the boy fight to be heard, each carrying a version of events that complicates any simple verdict. The film refuses easy answers, holding the tension between justice and mercy in a country navigating its own turbulent transformation.

Cast & crew

Kiumars Pourahmad, a veteran of Iranian social and family cinema, brings his characteristic restraint to the material. Pejman Bazeghi and Hossein Pakdel lead an ensemble that includes Sam Gharibian, Nasim Adabi, Ali Bagheri, Mahlegha Bagheri, and Mohammad Reza Ghaffari — a group of seasoned Iranian screen performers who anchor the procedural drama in lived emotional texture.

Context & significance

Films rooted in real Iranian legal and social cases carry particular weight for diaspora audiences who lived through or inherited memories of the 1980s — a decade of war, upheaval, and a justice system still finding its shape. Parvandeh Baz Ast (the title translates roughly as "The File Is Still Open") sits in a line of Iranian courtroom dramas that treat the law less as resolution and more as a mirror held up to society. For Persian-speaking viewers abroad, it offers a window into the textures of daily Iranian life and institutional culture that documentary alone rarely captures. The family drama genre has long been central to Iranian cinema's international reputation, and this film works within that tradition while sharpening it with criminal-procedural stakes.

Where & how to watch

Parvandeh Baz Ast is available on K-Time with original Persian audio. You can watch on the web, on your TV, or on your phone — no VPN needed, no geo-blocking, and no extra download required. Start or cancel anytime.