Director: Ehsan Abdipour
Cast: Gholamreza Farajzadeh, Toumaj Pourmorad, Hadis Chehrepardaz, Daryush Gharibzadeh
Pope is a 2013 Iranian family drama directed by Ehsan Abdipour, running 93 minutes. The film explores the lives of a Black family whose ancestors were uprooted from their homeland generations ago, driven by the hope of equality and a life free from oppression — a story of resilience, belonging, and quiet dignity.
What is Pope about?
Generations ago, a community of Black Africans was forced to leave their homeland, seeking refuge from poverty, disease, and the crushing weight of racial subjugation. Settling in a new land, they carried with them the wounds of displacement and the hope for a better standing in society. Pope centers on one family navigating the everyday pressures that come with this inherited history — tensions between tradition and adaptation, between the old world and the new. Without revealing where the story leads, the film quietly observes how identity, memory, and the struggle for dignity shape the choices each family member makes. The narrative unfolds patiently, letting the characters breathe and the audience feel the weight of generations.
Cast & crew
The film is directed by Ehsan Abdipour. The lead cast includes Gholamreza Farajzadeh and Toumaj Pourmorad in central roles, with Hadis Chehrepardaz and Daryush Gharibzadeh in supporting parts. The ensemble brings an understated naturalism to characters whose lives are shaped by a specific and underrepresented chapter of Iranian social history.
Context & significance
Pope occupies an unusual corner of Iranian cinema — it turns its lens toward the Afro-Iranian community, a population whose presence in Iran dates back centuries yet whose stories rarely reach the screen. For diaspora viewers, the film offers a reminder that Iranian identity is not monolithic. Themes of migration, exclusion, and the search for recognition carry a particular resonance for audiences who themselves live between two cultures. Shot with a family drama framework, the film invites reflection on what it means to belong — both within a country and within a broader human story. It is a quiet, humanist work from a domestic production landscape that does not often tackle this subject matter.
Where & how to watch
Pope is available on K-Time with original Persian audio. Watch on your TV, computer, or phone — no VPN needed, no geo-blocking, no extra download required. Subscribe and cancel anytime.