Director: Saman Moghaddam
Cast: Hedie Tehrani, Ali Ghorbanzadeh, Mehdi Khayyami, Pourandokht Mahiman, Ramin Rastad
Siavash is a 1999 Iranian drama-romance film written and directed by Saman Moghaddam, starring Ali Ghorbanzadeh and Hedyeh Tehrani. Set in post-war Tehran, it follows a young rock musician whose life is upended on the eve of his debut performance by a revelation about his supposedly dead father.
What is Siavash about?
Siavash is a young rock musician preparing for the most important night of his life — his first public show. Before the performance, he visits his father's grave, a soldier who fell during the Iran-Iraq War. What follows shatters everything he thought he knew: a close friend comes forward with word that his father did not die in battle but survived as a prisoner of war, and is believed to be alive somewhere in Tehran. Disoriented and desperate, Siavash turns to his girlfriend for support as he tries to locate this ghost from the past and reconcile the father he mourned with the man who may still be breathing. The film unfolds with quiet intensity, exploring how war's long shadow continues to shape the lives of those born into its aftermath.
Cast & crew
Ali Ghorbanzadeh anchors the film as the conflicted young musician Siavash, carrying the emotional weight of a son caught between grief and sudden hope. Hedyeh Tehrani brings warmth and steadiness as his girlfriend. The supporting cast includes Mehdi Khayyami, Pourandokht Mahiman, and Ramin Rastad, rounding out a portrait of a generation still living with the Iran-Iraq War's unresolved wounds.
Context & significance
Siavash arrives at a specific and emotionally charged moment in Iranian cinema — the late 1990s, when a generation of filmmakers began examining the human cost of the 1980s Iran-Iraq War not through battlefield spectacle but through the quieter damage it left inside families. For Iranian diaspora viewers, this film resonates on multiple levels: many families were separated, fathers lost or missing, identities built on incomplete stories. The rock-music backdrop also signals a generational tension — young Iranians navigating modernity and individual ambition while carrying inherited grief. Saman Moghaddam's screenplay gives that emotional landscape a human face.
Where & how to watch
Siavash is available to stream on K-Time with original Persian audio. No VPN is needed and there is no geo-blocking — watch on the web, your TV, or your phone. A K-Time subscription includes the full catalog; cancel anytime.