Director: Rasul Sadr Ameli
Cast: Amin Hayaei, Jouliette Rezai, Setareh Pesyani, Mehran Ghafourian
Ziba Sedayam Kon is a 2025 Iranian drama film directed by Rasul Sadr Ameli, following the unexpected reunion between a teenage girl living independently in a dormitory and her father, who escapes a psychiatric facility just to be with her on her sixteenth birthday.
What is Ziba Sedayam Kon about?
Ziba is sixteen years old and navigating life largely on her own — a student, a part-time worker, a dormitory resident with little connection to family. Her main ambition is simple but hard-won: a room of her own, a space that finally belongs to her. That quiet struggle is upended when her father Khosro arrives unannounced. He has spent years confined to a psychiatric hospital, but on this particular day he cannot stay away. The birthday becomes a collision between Ziba's cautious independence and the raw, complicated love of a father who never stopped thinking of her — forcing both of them to reckon with everything the years of distance have left unsaid.
Cast & crew
Rasul Sadr Ameli, one of Iranian cinema's most consistent directors of intimate social dramas, leads this production with his signature attention to emotional restraint. Amin Hayaei plays Khosro with quiet intensity, while Setareh Pesyani and Jouliette Rezai anchor the film's emotional register. Mehran Ghafourian brings a grounded supporting presence that keeps the story tethered to everyday Iranian life.
Context & significance
Iranian family dramas have long explored the fractures between generations shaped by absence, illness, and circumstance — and Ziba Sedayam Kon sits squarely within that tradition. For diaspora viewers, the themes carry particular resonance: children raised without consistent parental presence, fathers defined by their failures as much as their love, and the delicate negotiation of forgiveness that never quite arrives on schedule. Sadr Ameli has built a filmography around ordinary Iranians in impossible situations, and this film continues that project with honesty. It is the kind of quietly observed story that Iranian cinema does better than almost anywhere else — domestic, specific, and quietly devastating.
Where & how to watch
Ziba Sedayam Kon is available on K-Time in its original Persian audio. You can watch on the web, on your TV, or on your phone — no geo-blocking, no VPN needed. Start or cancel anytime.