Director: Afshin Zamani

Cast: Raha Moghadam, Alireza Labybian, Shahab Abbasian, Ali Pouya Ghasemi, Faezeh Hamidi

Shazdeh Ehtejab is a 2019 Iranian theatre-drama film directed by Afshin Zamani, adapted from Houshang Golshiri's celebrated 1969 novella of the same name. Running 73 minutes, it brings one of modern Persian literature's most formally ambitious works to the screen through a cast of Iranian stage and screen performers.

What is Shazdeh Ehtejab about?

Prince Khosrow, the last surviving scion of a once-powerful aristocratic family, makes his way home weary and spent. Upon arrival he is confronted with a vision of his own dead body — an image that sets in motion a fragmented, memory-laden reckoning with his bloodline's history. Through interwoven recollections, the film traces the rise and decline of the princely household across generations, examining how privilege, cruelty, and moral decay shaped those who came before him. The narrative moves between past and present without linear order, placing the protagonist at the center of a private trial in which the ghosts of ancestors and wronged servants speak without restraint. The weight of inherited guilt and the impossibility of escape form the film's emotional core.

Cast & crew

Director Afshin Zamani leads an ensemble that includes Raha Moghadam, Alireza Labybian, Shahab Abbasian, Ali Pouya Ghasemi, Faezeh Hamidi, Nastaran Parsaieyan, Mahsa Zahiri, and Marjan Momeni. The production draws on stage-trained performers, reflecting the theatrical origins of Golshiri's source text and the film's own classification within the theatre-drama genre.

Context & significance

Houshang Golshiri's novella Shazdeh Ehtejab is considered a landmark of twentieth-century Persian prose, known for its stream-of-consciousness structure and its unflinching portrait of aristocratic Iran on the eve of social transformation. For diaspora viewers with roots in Iranian literary culture, the adaptation carries significant weight as an attempt to bring a canonical written work into a visual medium. The film belongs to a tradition of Iranian art cinema that prizes interior experience, memory, and formal experimentation over conventional plot. Its 73-minute runtime and theatrical staging invite viewers to engage with the material as they might a staged reading — attentively, with patience for ambiguity.

Where & how to watch

Shazdeh Ehtejab is available on K-Time in its original Persian-language audio. Watch on the web, on your TV, or on your phone — no VPN needed, no geo-blocking, and no extra download required. Subscription plans are flexible; cancel anytime.