Director: Mehdi Karampour
Cast: Sareh Bayat, Babak Hamidian, Majid Mozaffari
Shift Shabane is an Iranian thriller film directed by Mehdi Karampour, written by Mostafa Rastegari and produced by Alireza Raisian. Set against the backdrop of a night shift, the film draws on the psychological weight of working through the dark hours, weaving tension and moral complexity into its premise.
What is Shift Shabane about?
When the quiet hours of a night shift become anything but routine, the characters in Shift Shabane find themselves confronted with unexpected pressure and hidden dangers lurking beneath the surface of an ordinary workplace. The film follows its protagonists through a confined setting where relationships fracture under stress, trust becomes a scarce resource, and every decision carries consequences that cannot easily be undone. The screenplay by Mostafa Rastegari constructs a carefully controlled atmosphere — small spaces, long silences, and a creeping sense that something is deeply wrong — building toward a confrontation that tests each character's limits.
Cast & crew
The film unites three of Iranian cinema's most respected performers. Sareh Bayat, widely recognized for her nuanced portrayals of complex women, brings emotional intelligence to her role. Babak Hamidian delivers the kind of contained, watchful performance that suits a thriller's demands. Majid Mozaffari rounds out the principal cast, adding gravitas to the ensemble. Director Mehdi Karampour guides them through tightly wound material.
Context & significance
Iranian thrillers occupy a distinctive space in Persian-language cinema — they tend to favor psychological tension over spectacle, relying on performance and atmosphere rather than action set pieces. Shift Shabane fits squarely into that tradition, offering diaspora audiences a film that reflects the anxieties and moral pressures familiar from Iranian social drama while packaging them in genre form. For viewers who grew up watching Iranian television dramas and feature films, seeing Sareh Bayat and Babak Hamidian share the screen in a suspense context is itself a notable event. The night-shift setting — isolating, unglamorous, governed by routine — becomes a pressure cooker in which character is revealed under duress.
Where & how to watch
Shift Shabane is available on K-Time with Persian audio. You can watch directly in your browser, on your TV, or on your phone — no VPN needed, no geo-blocking, and no extra download required. Membership is flexible; cancel anytime.