Director: Mahmood koushan
Cast: Naser Malek Motiee - Reza Beyk Imanverdi - Shorangiz Tabatabai - Hamideh Khairabadi - Maureen - Farrokh Laqa Hooshmand - Ali Zahedi - Roxana - Akbar Isfahani - Mohammad Shirazi - Mehdi Gholi Safapour - Alireza Ghavami - Pridokht Eghbalpour - Ali Miri
Shadihaye Zendegiye Maa is a 1976 Iranian drama film directed by Mahmood Koushan, starring Naser Malek Motiee and Reza Beyk Imanverdi. Set against the everyday rhythms of urban Tehran, it explores the blurred line between duty and compassion through the story of a conscientious police sergeant.
What is Shadihaye Zendegiye Maa about?
Sergeant Mohammad Ali Khan is a dedicated officer who lives with his mother and sisters, carrying the quiet weight of family responsibility alongside his duties on the force. When a series of neighborhood thefts is traced to a young man named Reza — who repairs electrical appliances by day and steals by night — the sergeant is assigned to catch him. The case grows complicated when Reza is identified at the home of a well-known singer named Hangameh, forcing the sergeant to weigh the law against the human circumstances behind the crime. The film builds its tension not through action but through the moral choices each character must make when their lives unexpectedly intersect.
Cast & crew
Naser Malek Motiee, one of the most beloved actors of pre-revolution Iranian cinema, brings warmth and moral gravity to the sergeant. Reza Beyk Imanverdi plays the conflicted thief with understated nuance. The ensemble also features Shorangiz Tabatabai and Hamideh Khairabadi, two prominent figures of the era's popular film industry, grounding the story in recognizable human detail.
Context & significance
Made in 1976 during the golden era of Iranian commercial cinema — just three years before the revolution — Shadihaye Zendegiye Maa represents a strand of Persian filmmaking that balanced social observation with popular appeal. Films like this captured the texture of Tehran's working and middle classes, their codes of honor, family obligation, and the everyday friction between institutional authority and individual circumstance. For diaspora viewers, titles from this period carry a particular resonance: they are windows into a lost urban world, a Tehran that exists now only in memory and on film.
Where & how to watch
Shadihaye Zendegiye Maa is available on K-Time with original Persian audio. Stream it on your TV, phone, or directly in your browser — no VPN required, no geo-blocking, no extra download needed. Cancel anytime.