Director: Varoj Karim Masihi
Cast: Bahram Radan, Tarane Alidousti, Mahtab Keramati, Hamed Komeili, Mahmoud Pakniat
Tardid is a 2000 Iranian social drama directed by Varoj Karim Masihi, starring Bahram Radan, Tarane Alidousti, and Mahtab Keramati. Running 120 minutes with an IMDb score of 7.8, it weaves a tense family mystery around inheritance, hidden loyalties, and the courage required to confront those we trust most.
What is Tardid about?
Siavash Roozbehan grows up in the shadow of a family tragedy — his father died under circumstances that everyone around him accepts without question. His uncle has stepped in to manage the family fortune, and Siavash finds himself drawn to Mahtab, his cousin, even as the household dynamics grow more complicated by the day. As Siavash digs into his past, disturbing truths begin to surface: the accident that took his father may not have been an accident at all. Then comes news that his uncle plans to marry his mother, tightening a knot of suspicion and unease. The film traces Siavash's gradual awakening — caught between what he was told and what he is starting to understand — in a story where family bonds become both a comfort and a trap.
The K-Time take
Tardid earns its strong rating through restrained, character-driven storytelling that favors psychological tension over melodrama. Masihi coaxes measured, believable performances from the ensemble, and the film's slow-burn pacing mirrors Siavash's own dawning recognition that the world he inherited is not the one he was shown.
Cast & crew
Bahram Radan, one of Iranian cinema's most recognized leading men, brings quiet intensity to Siavash, a character who must hold grief and suspicion together without tipping into either. Tarane Alidousti — later internationally celebrated — appears here in an early role that already demonstrates her precise emotional range. Mahtab Keramati adds warmth and complexity as a character caught between family loyalty and emerging truth. The supporting work of Hamed Komeili and Mahmoud Pakniat grounds the drama in recognizable social texture.
Context & significance
Released at the turn of the millennium, Tardid belongs to a strand of Iranian cinema preoccupied with the family unit as a microcosm of broader social tensions — questions of authority, inheritance, and who really controls the narrative of a household. For diaspora viewers, the film resonates on multiple levels: the dynamics of a patriarchal extended family, the silence that surrounds uncomfortable truths, and the particular loneliness of a young man trying to reconstruct his own history. The story draws on classic dramatic archetypes — the usurped heir, the suspicious death — but locates them firmly within everyday Iranian middle-class life, making the stakes feel intimate rather than operatic. It is the kind of film that rewards patient viewing and prompts long conversations afterward.
Where & how to watch
Tardid is available to stream on K-Time in its original Persian audio. Watch on the web, on your Android TV, or on your phone — no VPN needed, no geo-blocking, and no extra download required. Subscribe and cancel anytime.