Director: Mojgan Attar
Cast: Ahmad Hashemi
Tarikhe Mesre Bastan: Safar be Sarzamine Ajaieb is a 2023 Iranian documentary directed by Mojgan Attar, exploring the mysteries of ancient Egypt through the lens of Howard Carter's legendary excavation of Tutankhamun's tomb — and the eerie wave of deaths that followed the unsealing of one of history's most guarded secrets.
What is Tarikhe Mesre Bastan Safar be Sarzamine Ajaieb about?
In the early twentieth century, the British archaeologist Howard Carter pursued a decades-long obsession: finding the intact burial chamber of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamun. After repeated failures and with only a final season of funding from his patron Lord Carnarvon, Carter's team broke through into a sealed world untouched for three thousand years. Almost immediately, a shadow seemed to fall over those involved. Carnarvon died under strange circumstances. Carter's canary was killed by a cobra — the royal symbol of the pharaohs. The expedition's secretary, his father, and dozens of scholars and scientists connected to the dig died in a short span of time. Yet Carter himself returned to England unharmed. The documentary asks hard questions: coincidence or something older and stranger at work? And beyond the curse, what other wonders and riddles does the land of ancient Egypt still hold?
Cast & crew
The documentary is directed by Mojgan Attar, a filmmaker working in Iranian non-fiction content, and features presenter and narrator Ahmad Hashemi. The production takes viewers through archival material, historical reconstructions, and explanatory commentary to make the archaeology and mythology of ancient Egypt accessible to a Persian-speaking audience without prior specialist knowledge.
Context & significance
For Iranian diaspora viewers, this short documentary sits squarely in a beloved tradition of Persian-language popular history programming — the kind of content that makes grand civilizations feel personal and immediate. Ancient Egypt and its pharaohs have fascinated Persian audiences for generations, partly because of the deep cultural memory of the Achaemenid-era connections between Iran and Egypt. Watching events like the Tutankhamun discovery retold in Persian, with culturally familiar pacing and framing, gives the diaspora a way to share world history with their children in the family's first language. At thirty-eight minutes, it is ideal for an evening with younger viewers curious about archaeology, curses, and the ancient world.
Where & how to watch
Tarikhe Mesre Bastan: Safar be Sarzamine Ajaieb is available on K-Time with the original Persian audio. Watch on the web, on your TV, or on your phone — no VPN needed, no geo-blocking, and no extra download required. Subscribe and cancel anytime.