Director: Manoto TV
Told across five parts, this 2023 documentary lets a former senior Iranian security official speak at length about the years leading up to the events of 1979.
What is Parviz Sabeti 01 Savak about?
The series is structured as an extended, on-camera interview with Parviz Sabeti, who held a senior role inside Iran's internal security apparatus under the monarchy. Across five episodes he walks through the period from the 1960s onward, describing how the security and intelligence services he worked within were organized, how they tracked opposition movements, and how officials of the era understood the political pressures building around them. The documentary follows a mostly chronological structure, moving from earlier decades toward the final months before the monarchy's collapse, and relies heavily on Sabeti's own recollection of meetings, decisions, and internal debates rather than outside narration. Archival photographs and period footage are used sparingly to anchor specific moments in time. The account is presented as one participant's version of events, offered decades after the fact from his own vantage point inside the system.
Cast & crew
The documentary is carried entirely by Parviz Sabeti's own testimony, filmed and produced under Manoto TV; no additional on-camera subjects or directors are credited in current records, and the interview format means there is no supporting cast, reenactment footage, or scripted dialogue anywhere in the five parts.
Context & significance
This production sits within a broader wave of oral-history documentaries made for diaspora audiences that revisit late-Pahlavi-era Iran through first-person accounts of former officials, exiles, and observers. Viewers should treat it as a single subject's recollection rather than a comprehensive or independently verified history of the period.
Where & how to watch
All five episodes are available on K-Time with a free account login, presented in the original Farsi for viewers following the series in its native language. The series is organized as five standalone parts, so viewers can pause between episodes and return to the interview at their own pace.