Is Yalda based on a true story?

The film is inspired by the real tradition of Iranian televised forgiveness programs where condemned individuals appear before victims' families on live TV. The specific characters and events are fictional, but the legal and cultural backdrop is authentic.

Filme Yalda koja bebinam — where can I watch it online?

You can watch Yalda on K-Time with original Persian audio. It plays directly in your browser, on your TV, or on your Android phone — no extra download or VPN required.

Is there an English subtitle for Yalda on K-Time?

K-Time streams Yalda in its original Persian. Check the player's subtitle menu for available subtitle options. The film's dialogue is entirely in Farsi, so Persian-speaking viewers will follow every nuance without any text overlay.

What is Shab-e Yalda and why does it matter to the film?

Shab-e Yalda is the Persian winter solstice — the longest night of the year — celebrated with family, poetry, and pomegranates. The film uses that sacred communal night as both setting and symbol: a night meant for warmth becomes the backdrop for a life-or-death judgment.

YALDA

Name: YALDA
Genre: Drama, Family, Social
Released: 2022
Duration: 83 min
Cast: Fereshteh Hosseini, Bahram Afshar, Sadaf Asgari, Behnaz Jafari, Babak Karimi

Director: Masoud Bakhshi

Cast: Fereshteh Hosseini, Bahram Afshar, Sadaf Asgari, Behnaz Jafari, Babak Karimi

Yalda is a 2022 Iranian drama film directed by Masoud Bakhshi, set on the longest night of the Persian calendar. The story unfolds live inside a nationally televised forgiveness show, where a condemned woman pleads for her life before the cameras — and before the country.

What is YALDA about?

Maryam has been sentenced to death for the killing of her much-older husband, Nasser. On the night of Yalda — the winter solstice celebration when Iranian families gather to read poetry and eat pomegranates — she is brought before the cameras of a popular live reality program. The show's premise is simple: if the victim's daughter publicly forgives her, Maryam walks free. But the daughter, Mona, is conflicted, the studio audience has opinions of its own, the producers are chasing ratings, and the tight clock of live television turns every hesitation into a verdict. What begins as a legal procedure becomes an unsparing examination of guilt, class, marriage, and the performance of mercy.

Cast & crew

Director Masoud Bakhshi, known for sharp social observation in Iranian cinema, structures the film almost entirely within the studio space. Fereshteh Hosseini carries the film as Maryam, projecting fear and quiet dignity in equal measure. Sadaf Asgari brings raw ambivalence to Mona, and veteran Behnaz Jafari and Babak Karimi lend considerable weight to the story's moral scaffolding.

Context & significance

Yalda arrives at the intersection of two distinctly Iranian cultural phenomena: the sacred tradition of Shab-e Yalda and the country's long-running televised forgiveness programs, where real capital cases are sometimes decided on air. For diaspora audiences, the film works on multiple levels — as a window into a justice system that hinges on family consent, as a meditation on gendered power in Iranian marriage, and as a sharp critique of how media spectacle can reframe life-and-death stakes as entertainment. The Yalda setting is not mere decoration; the night's themes of light emerging from darkness, of endurance and renewal, echo throughout every scene.

Where & how to watch

Yalda is available on K-Time in its original Persian audio. No VPN is needed and the film is accessible without geo-blocking on the web, your TV, and your phone. Start watching today — cancel anytime.