Director: Mohammad Deljou, Amir Mojahed

Cast: Googoosh, Mohammad Deljou, Shahram Shabpareh, Jalal Pishvaiyan, Arman Minasiyan

Shabe Ghariban is a 1975 Iranian drama film co-directed by Mohammad Deljou and Amir Mojahed, starring music legend Googoosh alongside Shahram Shabpareh and Jalal Pishvaiyan. Set in the back streets of Tehran, it follows two petty criminals whose lives intersect with a street performer, weaving together loneliness, survival, and unexpected human connection.

What is Shabe Ghariban about?

Siamak is a small-time thief who runs errands for a tattooist boss in Tehran's underworld. He shares a cramped rented room with his gambling friend Taghi, and their days drift between petty schemes and borrowed time. One afternoon on a crowded bus, Siamak picks a man's wallet — only to have it snatched away by Reza, a street fortune-teller working the same crowd. The accidental encounter turns into something neither expected. Reza is ill, with nowhere to turn, and Siamak brings her back to his room. What follows explores how people on the margins of society find solidarity in each other, and whether two lives shaped by desperation can hold space for something more than survival.

Cast & crew

Googoosh, Iran's most iconic pop star, takes on a rare dramatic role as Reza, the ailing fortune-teller, bringing her signature magnetic presence to the screen. Mohammad Deljou, who also co-directed the film, plays Siamak. Shahram Shabpareh portrays the gambling companion Taghi, and Jalal Pishvaiyan brings menace to the underworld boss Abbas. The ensemble cast grounds the film in the textures of working-class Tehran.

Context & significance

Shabe Ghariban belongs to a wave of pre-revolution Iranian social dramas that looked unflinchingly at urban poverty, petty crime, and the lives of people the city had left behind. Films from this period drew heavily on the gritty realism emerging in world cinema and applied it to Tehran's crowded alleys and transient rooming houses. For diaspora viewers, this film carries a double weight: it is a document of a vanished Tehran — the sounds, the slang, the street rhythms — and a reminder of the generation of artists, including Googoosh and Shahram Shabpareh, who defined Persian popular culture before 1979. Watching it today is an act of cultural memory as much as entertainment.

Where & how to watch

Shabe Ghariban is available on K-Time in its original Persian audio. No extra download needed, no VPN required, and no geo-blocking — stream directly in your browser, on your TV, or on your phone. Start watching and cancel anytime.