Director: Shapoor Gharib
Cast: Naser Malek Motiee, Forouzan, Bahman Mofid
Raghaseye Shahr is a 1970 Iranian drama-comedy-crime film directed by Shapoor Gharib, set against the working-class Tehran of the late Pahlavi era. Starring Naser Malek Motiee, Forouzan, and Bahman Mofid, it follows a middle-aged tradesman whose domestic discontent pulls him into an ill-fated affair with a nightclub dancer.
What is Raghaseye Shahr about?
Loti is a hard-working lumberyard owner whose marriage has grown cold and distant. Starved of affection at home, he finds himself drawn to a vivacious dancer at a local nightclub. For a time it seems like genuine connection — she even walks away from her profession for him. But the equilibrium shatters when Loti's wife intervenes and asks the dancer to step aside. Feeling cornered and humiliated, the dancer turns hostile and returns to her old life. Loti is left emotionally devastated, and the story closes in a burst of raw, bruising consequence. The film does not moralize; it simply watches its flawed characters collide.
Cast & crew
Naser Malek Motiee was one of pre-revolution Iranian cinema's most beloved everyman actors, effortlessly inhabiting working-class roles that resonated with mass audiences. Forouzan, a defining star of the era, brings warmth and sharpness to the dancer. Bahman Mofid, known for his comedic timing, rounds out the central trio.
Context & significance
Made in 1970, Raghaseye Shahr belongs to a wave of populist Iranian films that depicted urban Tehran with candor — crowded bazaars, cramped apartments, class friction, and marriages under quiet strain. This genre, sometimes called Film Farsi, blended melodrama with comic relief and drew enormous audiences from working-class Iranians. For diaspora viewers who grew up with these films or inherited them from parents, they carry the texture of a lost Tehran: the fashions, the slang, the social codes of a city that no longer exists in quite that form. Watching it is as much an act of memory as it is entertainment.
Where & how to watch
Raghaseye Shahr is available on K-Time in its original Persian audio — no dubbing or subtitles are included for this title. Stream it on the web, your TV, or your phone with no VPN needed, no geo-blocking, and no extra download. Cancel anytime.