Zahremar pairs Siamak Ansari's flustered everyman charm with the directing debut of comedian Javad Razavian, spinning a 2019 satire about a pious Tehran election candidate whose carefully polished public image starts to crack the moment an old acquaintance walks back into his life.
What is Zahremar about?
Heshmat has spent years building a reputation on piety and respectability, and a seat in Tehran's elections finally seems within reach. Campaign season, however, rewards a spotless past — and his is not quite as tidy as the posters suggest. A friend from years gone by resurfaces trailing problems of his own, and every attempt Heshmat makes to keep the man at arm's length only tangles the two of them tighter together. What follows is a comedy of concealment: cover stories multiply, relatives grow suspicious, and the candidate finds himself running his hardest campaign inside his own household.
About the cast
Siamak Ansari, a household face from years of beloved Iranian television comedy, carries the lead with his trademark slow-burn exasperation. Shabnam Moghadami and Shaghayegh Farahani round out the principal cast, while director Javad Razavian — himself one of Iran's most recognizable comic performers — steps behind the camera rather than in front of it.
Context & significance
Released in 2019, Zahremar belongs to a wave of Iranian social comedies that use election-season ambition as a mirror for everyday hypocrisy. The title itself — a sharp colloquial Persian exclamation, roughly 'snake venom' — signals the film's tone: barbed, streetwise, and rooted in the rhythms of Tehran life. Razavian's move from performing to directing drew real attention at the time, since audiences knew him best from long-running comedy series; here he keeps the humor grounded in character rather than slapstick, aiming the jokes at appearances, reputation, and the gap between public virtue and private mess. At a brisk 91 minutes, the film wastes little time getting into its complications.
Watching Zahremar on K-Time
Zahremar streams on K-Time with a free account login — this page is open for anyone to read, and signing in unlocks playback. K-Time's interface is built for Persian speakers abroad, so browsing, menus, and the whole viewing experience feel at home in Farsi wherever you live.