Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Cast: Parviz Naderi, Hossein Yarmohammadi, Andre Govalovish, Firoozeh Habibi
Tajrobeh (تجربه) is a 1973 Iranian drama film directed by Abbas Kiarostami, produced under the New Film Group at the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults. Running 53 minutes, it marks one of Kiarostami's earliest features and introduces the quiet, observational style that would define his later celebrated work.
What is Tajrobeh about?
A teenage boy earns his keep working for a local photographer, spending his days in the studio and on assignments around town. Through this routine, he becomes enchanted by a girl from a wealthier household — a world that seems just out of reach. The film traces his tentative, wordless longing: how he watches her from a distance, seizes small opportunities to be near her, and navigates the awkward gap between social classes without confrontation or drama. Kiarostami keeps the camera close to daily life, letting the boy's interior world surface through glances and small gestures rather than dialogue, building a quietly tender portrait of adolescent yearning.
The K-Time take
What distinguishes Tajrobeh is its restraint. Kiarostami avoids sentimentality entirely, trusting the weight of a single look or an unhurried shot of an empty street to carry the emotional load. At 53 minutes the film feels complete — an early demonstration that Kiarostami's greatest instinct was knowing when not to speak.
Cast & crew
The film stars Parviz Naderi as the young protagonist, with Hossein Yarmohammadi, Andre Govalovish, and Firoozeh Habibi in supporting roles. Director Abbas Kiarostami was still in the early phase of his career in 1973, working within the Kanoon (Institute for Intellectual Development) framework that gave Iranian New Wave filmmakers unusual creative freedom to explore social themes through a child's perspective.
Context & significance
Tajrobeh sits at the beginning of Iranian New Wave cinema, a movement that turned the camera toward ordinary Iranians — especially children and working-class youth — rather than the melodramatic plots that had dominated Persian-language films before it. For diaspora viewers, this film carries a particular resonance: it preserves Tehran of the early 1970s in amber, capturing street life, class divides, and the textures of everyday urban Iran before the revolution. Watching it today is partly an act of historical witness and partly an appreciation of how quietly radical Kiarostami's approach was from the very start of his career.
Where & how to watch
Tajrobeh is available on K-Time with original Persian audio. No VPN is needed and there is no geo-blocking — stream on the web browser, on your TV, or on your phone. Subscribe and cancel anytime.