Director: Keivan Alimohammadi, Omid Bonakdar
Cast: Niki Karimi, Mohammad Reza Foroutan, Mahtab Keramati, Mahnaz Afshar, Parsa Pirouzfar
Shabaneh Rooz is a 2011 Iranian drama-romance film co-directed by Keivan Alimohammadi and Omid Bonakdar, following four women whose separate lives quietly intersect in unexpected ways. With a cast of Iran's most beloved actresses, it is a rare ensemble portrait of modern Iranian womanhood.
What is Shabaneh Rooz about?
Four women, each navigating her own complicated world, find their stories drawn together through a web of coincidences and shared emotions. A fashion designer confronts the pressures of creativity and personal longing. A woman caught between duty and desire weighs what she truly wants. Another struggles with the tension between ambition and love, while a fourth faces choices that could reshape everything she knows. The film follows these parallel threads with patience, letting the women's inner lives breathe before gently weaving them into a single, quietly affecting whole. No grand twists — only the accumulated weight of ordinary feeling.
Cast & crew
The film brings together an exceptional ensemble of Iranian cinema's leading women. Niki Karimi, Mahtab Keramati, Mahnaz Afshar, Negar Javaherian, and Setare Eskandari each carry a distinct storyline, supported by Mohammad Reza Foroutan, Parsa Pirouzfar, and Hamed Behdad in key supporting roles. Directors Alimohammadi and Bonakdar guide this large cast with a measured, character-first approach.
Context & significance
For diaspora viewers who grew up with Iranian melodrama, Shabaneh Rooz sits in a rich tradition of women-centered ensemble films that flourished in the 2000s and early 2010s — a period when Iranian commercial cinema was producing emotionally literate features aimed squarely at female audiences. The film's multi-strand structure echoes storytelling modes familiar from both Iranian television and art-house crossover work, making it accessible to a wide range of Persian-speaking viewers. Watching it abroad, the everyday Tehran textures — the apartments, the tensions, the quiet negotiations between women and their circumstances — carry a particular resonance for those who left.
Where & how to watch
Shabaneh Rooz is available on K-Time in its original Persian audio. You can watch on your TV, phone, or browser — no VPN needed, no geo-blocking, and no extra download required. Start a subscription and cancel anytime.