Director: Mohammad Kart
Cast: Javad Ezzati, Tannaz Tabatabaei, Amir Aghaei, Pantea Bahram, Ali Shadman
Shenaye Parvane (Butterfly Swimming) is a 2020 Iranian drama film directed by Mohammad Kart, starring Javad Ezzati and Tannaz Tabatabaei. With an IMDb rating of 7.4, it is a taut social thriller that examines privacy, family honor, and the devastating reach of digital exposure in contemporary Iranian society.
What is Shenaye Parvane about?
Parvaneh is an ordinary woman whose private moment — caught on video while swimming — suddenly becomes public when the clip circulates through social media. Her husband Hashem and his brother Hojjat are consumed by rage and shame, determined to track down whoever recorded and shared the footage. As the two men push deeper into their hunt, the film questions where the real violence lies: in the moment captured on screen or in the cultural machinery that punishes the woman at its center. The story builds its tension quietly, asking hard questions about blame, exposure, and the costs borne by those who never sought the spotlight.
The K-Time take
Mohammad Kart directs with a restrained hand, letting social pressure simmer beneath domestic surfaces rather than erupting into melodrama. The performances — particularly Ezzati's coiled, wounded masculinity and Tabatabaei's quietly devastated Parvaneh — anchor a story that feels both urgently contemporary and painfully familiar to Iranian audiences across generations.
Cast & crew
Javad Ezzati, one of Iranian cinema's most compelling presences, brings raw intensity to Hojjat, the younger brother whose grief tips into obsession. Tannaz Tabatabaei plays Parvaneh with restrained dignity. The ensemble includes Amir Aghaei as Hashem, Pantea Bahram, Ali Shadman, Mahlagha Bagheri, Mehdi Hoseininia, and Iman Safa — a strong cross-section of contemporary Iranian acting talent.
Context & significance
Shenaye Parvane arrives at a moment when Iranian cinema has increasingly turned its camera toward the social pressures placed on women in digital-age Iran. The film sits in a lineage of socially conscious Iranian drama that surfaces uncomfortable truths through intimate, domestic storytelling — a tradition the diaspora knows well. For Iranian viewers abroad, the film resonates on a double register: as a specific portrait of life inside Iran, and as a universal story about how quickly a community can turn on one of its own. It asks who gets to define shame, and who is made to carry it.
Where & how to watch
Shenaye Parvane is available now on K-Time with original Persian audio. Watch directly in your browser, on your TV, or on your phone — no VPN needed, no geo-blocking, and no extra download required. Cancel anytime.