Director: Khosrow Parvizi
Cast: Naser Malek Motiee, Afarin Obeisi, Bahman Mofid, Zhale Olov, Hosein Gil
Pol is a 1971 Iranian drama-romance film directed by Khosrow Parvizi, following a locomotive driver whose chance encounter with a young woman in a remote village sets in motion a tender love story interrupted by sudden tragedy. A classic of pre-revolution Persian cinema.
What is Pol about?
Jalal works the rails as a locomotive driver, living a solitary but purposeful life on the tracks. On a stop near a quiet village, he meets Shirin, a young woman whose warmth and spirit draw him out of his solitude. The two grow close and make plans for a shared future together. Before those plans can take shape, however, a serious accident on the line leaves Jalal gravely injured, throwing everything into uncertainty. The film traces how love persists against the weight of circumstance, weaving the rhythms of working-class life with the fragile hope of a romance only just beginning.
Cast & crew
Director Khosrow Parvizi guides a cast led by the beloved Naser Malek Motiee, one of classical Iranian cinema's most recognisable faces, opposite Afarin Obeisi as Shirin. The supporting ensemble includes Bahman Mofid, Zhale Olov, Hosein Gil, Jamshid Mashayekhi, Frouhar, and Shahrzad — a gathering of celebrated names from the golden era of Persian film.
Context & significance
Made in 1971, Pol belongs to the productive decade before the 1979 revolution when Iranian popular cinema was finding its voice in stories of ordinary people — workers, villagers, city migrants — caught between tradition and aspiration. The railway setting gives the film a distinctly modern, kinetic backdrop unusual for its romantic genre. For diaspora viewers, Pol carries the texture of a vanished Iran: the accents, the landscapes, the unhurried pace of everyday life that defined an era. Seeing familiar character actors like Mashayekhi and Malek Motiee sharing the screen is itself a form of cultural memory. The film speaks to universal questions of love and loss dressed in the unmistakably Persian clothes of its time.
Where & how to watch
Pol is available on K-Time in its original Persian audio. Watch on the web, your TV, or your phone with no VPN needed and no geo-blocking — Persian-speaking viewers worldwide can stream freely. Subscription required; cancel anytime.