Director: Mehrdad Oskouei
Sayehaye Bikhorshid is a 2022 Iranian documentary directed by Mehrdad Oskouei, offering an unflinching look inside a juvenile detention center for girls in Iran, where five adolescent inmates have been convicted for their involvement in the killing of an abusive father, husband, or male relative.
What is Sayehaye Bikhorshid about?
Inside the walls of a juvenile correction facility, five teenage girls live out their sentences under state supervision. Each arrived there through circumstances shaped by violence, powerlessness, and desperation within their own households. Oskouei observes without judgment — letting the young women speak, remember, and reflect in their own voices. We come to understand who they are beyond the charge on their file: daughters, sisters, students, and children who reached a breaking point. The film refuses to flatten them into symbols or victims, holding space for complexity, grief, and a quiet, stubborn will to continue living.
Cast & crew
Mehrdad Oskouei is one of Iran's most internationally recognized documentary filmmakers, known for his long-form immersive work with marginalized subjects, particularly youth in institutional settings. Sayehaye Bikhorshid continues his practice of building sustained trust with his subjects over extended periods of filming, giving the documentary its remarkable emotional authenticity. No additional cast or crew credits were provided in available records.
Context & significance
For Iranians living abroad, this documentary arrives as more than a social-issue film. It speaks directly to patterns of domestic power, silence, and survival that many diaspora families know firsthand — patterns that rarely surface in polished public discourse. Oskouei's camera enters spaces that Iranian cinema typically avoids, sitting with young women whose stories have been criminalized by the same institutions that failed to protect them. For Persian-speaking viewers outside Iran, the film offers a rare, honest reckoning with structural realities back home, and a reminder that behind court records are human lives shaped by systems far larger than any single act.
Where & how to watch
Sayehaye Bikhorshid is available on K-Time with original Persian audio. Stream it on the web, on your TV, or on your phone — no VPN needed, no geo-blocking, and no extra download required. Subscribe and cancel anytime.