Director: Oktay Baraheni
Cast: Leila Hatami, Hamed Behdad, Hassan Pourshirazi, Mohammad Valizadegan, Babak Hamidian
Pir Pesar is a 2025 Iranian drama film directed by Oktay Baraheni, running nearly three and a half hours, that scrutinizes the suffocating world of a patriarchal household in modern Tehran — where economic hardship, repressed rage, and a father's unrelenting cruelty trap two grown sons in a life they cannot escape.
What is Pir Pesar about?
Two middle-aged brothers share a cramped apartment with their domineering father, a man whose volatile temper and deeply ingrained chauvinism have already driven away his second wife. The older son endures his father's daily humiliations in silence; the younger one quietly fantasizes about escape, or something darker. When the father decides to rent the upstairs flat to a young woman — hoping to make her his next wife — she becomes drawn to the elder brother, introducing an unexpected warmth into the household. That warmth, however, is enough to destabilize a family that has been surviving on rigid silence and unspoken resentments for years. What follows is a slow accumulation of pressure as old wounds are reopened and each member of this household is forced toward a reckoning they have long postponed.
The K-Time take
Baraheni sustains an atmosphere of dread that is quiet but relentless, allowing long stretches of mundane domestic life to double as psychological pressure. The ensemble works in close concert — restraint is the dominant register, which makes the moments of eruption land with unusual force. At 192 minutes, the film asks for patience, but rewards it with a portrait of Iranian masculinity and its costs that is rarely this unflinching.
Cast & crew
Leila Hatami, one of Iran's most internationally recognized actors, brings precision and emotional depth to her role. Hamed Behdad, known for inhabiting men on the edge of collapse, is well-cast as the simmering younger son. Hassan Pourshirazi plays the father with a chilling matter-of-factness. The supporting ensemble — Mohammad Valizadegan, Babak Hamidian, Fahimeh Rahimnia, Reza Rouygari, and Mohammad-Reza Davoudnejad — fills out this family's claustrophobic world with credibility.
Context & significance
Pir Pesar arrives at a moment when Iranian cinema continues to explore domestic life as the lens through which social pressure, economic anxiety, and patriarchal structures become visible. For the Iranian diaspora, stories set inside the family home carry particular weight — they are simultaneously familiar and complicated by distance. The film's title, meaning roughly 'old boy' or 'grown son,' signals its central irony: men who are chronologically adults but remain stunted by a father's dominance. Iranian drama has a long tradition of this kind of claustrophobic family portraiture, and Baraheni works squarely within it while pushing toward an emotional rawness that distinguishes the film.
Where & how to watch
Pir Pesar is available on K-Time with original Persian audio. You can stream it on the web, on your TV, or on your phone — no geo-blocking, no VPN required. Subscribe and cancel anytime.