Best Iranian drama movies

A Time for Drunken Horses (2000)

After their father dies, a family of five children are forced to survive on their own in a Kurdish village on the border of Iran and Iraq.

The Patience Stone (2013)

In a war-ridden country, a woman watches over her husband, comatose from a bullet in the neck and abandoned by Jihad companions and brothers. One day, the woman decides to say things to him she could never have done before.

Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame (2007)

A young girl zealously wants to go to school and learn to read and write. Almost everywhere she is met with hostility or indifference. The only young boy who takes her to his school is thrown out by the teacher, because helping her prevented him from arriving in time. On her way home she and other girls are taken as prisoners by boys playing as Taliban fighters. They tear her school book to pieces and threaten to stone their female captives.

Bomb: A Love Story (2018)

It’s 1988 and, at the height of the Iran-Iraq War, Tehran is bombed relentlessly. The days that pass are full of foreboding, and yet, love, affection, hope and life itself manage to sweep away the fear of death from those surrounded by it. Love may often be difficult to comprehend, but death is a horrible certitude. ‘Bomb, A Love Story’ shows how, even when faced with the darkness of death, love and hope will find a way.

Bashu, the Little Stranger (1991)

During the Iran-Iraq War, Bashu, a young boy loses his house and all his family. Scared, he sneaks into a truck that is leaving the area. He gets off the truck in the Northern part of the country, where everything from landscape to language is different. He meets Naii, who is trying to raise her two young children on a farm, while her husband is away. Despite cultural differences, and the fact that they do not speak the same language, Bashu and Naii slowly form a strong bond.

Blackboards (2000)

Itinerant Kurdish teachers, carrying blackboards on their backs, look for students in the hills and villages of Iran, near the Iraqi border during the Iran-Iraq war. Said falls in with a group of old men looking for their bombed-out village; he offers to guide them, and takes as his wife Halaleh, the clan's lone woman, a widow with a young son. Reeboir attaches himself to a dozen pre-teen boys weighed down by contraband they carry across the border; they're mules, always on the move. Said and Reeboir try to teach as their potential students keep walking. Danger is close; armed soldiers patrol the skies, the roads, and the border. Is there a role for a teacher? Is there hope?

Track 143 (2014)

Olfat is raising her children in hardship. She has one daughter and one son called Yonos who works in Kerman copper mine. One day, she finds a note at home with this massage "My friends and I are going to enter the war as soldiers". After reading this note, Olfat and his friend's parents got worried about their sons. When operation Valfajr failed, they received news about Yonos's friend. Olfat is waiting for her son too. As she finds out that the Iraqi radio announces the Iranian captives' names, she ties a radio on her back and carries it everywhere.

The West Sky (2024)

The story of Asman Gharb deals with the early days of the war and the role of Ali Akbar Shiroudi. In this movie starring Milad K. Maram, Ali Akbar Shiroudi's personality and lofty thinking are well displayed.

Women Who Run with the Wolves (2019)

Resurrection (2014)

The story of Imam Hossein's battle in Karbala, an unfair war which made one the most important effects in Islam history.

From Karkhe to Rhein (1993)

Young veteran Saeed, who is suffering from visual problems due to injuries sustained during the Iran-Iraq War, is sent to Germany for treatment and recuperation. Once there, he is reunited with his sister Leyla, who is now married to a German citizen. The siblings struggle to reconnect in a foreign land, while Saeed prepares himself for surgery that could change his life. A tragic exploration of the horrific repercussions of war.

The Salesman (2016)

Forced out of their apartment due to dangerous works on a neighboring building, Emad and Rana move into a new flat in the center of Tehran. An incident linked to the previous tenant will dramatically change the young couple’s life.

Life and a Day (2016)

Somaieh, the youngest daughter of an indigent family, is getting married and fear is overwhelming each and every member of the family regarding how to overcome their difficulties after she's gone.

No Date, No Signature (2017)

Kaveh Nariman is a Doctor in the medical examiner's office. One day at his work he meets a corpse which is very familiar to him.

Chess of the Wind (1976)

The first lady of a noble house has died and now there is conflict between the remainders for taking over her heritage.

Rhino Season (2012)

Kurdish-Iranian poet Sahel has just been released from a thirty-year prison sentence in Iran. Now the one thing keeping him going is the thought of finding his wife, who thinks he's been dead for over twenty years.

Fish & Cat (2013)

A group of students travel to a remote region to participate in a kite-flying event. Next to their camp by the lakeside, they find a restaurant with cooks that treat the students with suspicion. Bizarre events lead to a complicated situation, from which the students cannot escape.

Killing Mad Dogs (2001)

Golrokh, an Iranian author, struggles to settle her husband's debts caused by a business partner who left him to bear the consequences.

The Hunter (2010)

In an act of vengeance, a young man randomly kills two police officers. He escapes to the forest, where he is arrested by two other officers. The three men are surrounded by trees, the woods. They are lost in a maze, a desolate landscape, where the boundaries between the hunter and the hunted are difficult to perceive.

Lottery (2018)

Two Iranian teenagers in love want to get married, travel to the US to get a green card and live there, but their parents object. With not enough money saved, they pin their hopes on winning the state lottery to fund their trip, but tragedy derails their plans.

The Last Portal PT II (2024)

A volunteer, like people, utilizes a portal and awakens on a peculiar planet. He discovers a secure location concealing clandestine secrets within..... this short film tried to demonstrates what would happen if you don't use the portal in a true way

Baran (2001)

On a building site in present-day Tehran, Lateef, a 17-year-old Turkish worker is irresistibly drawn to Rahmat, a young Afghan worker. The revelation of Rahmat's secret changes both their lives.

The Warden (2019)

In 1967, an old prisoner in southern Iran is being evacuated because of the proximity to the city's new airport. The head of the prison, Major Nemat Jahed, and his agents are busy transferring prisoners to the new prison, until ...

Gabbeh (1996)

An elderly couple go about their routine of cleaning their gabbeh, while bickering gently with each other. Magically, a young woman appears, helping the two clean the rug. This young woman belongs to the clan whose history is depicted in the design of the gabbeh, and the rug recounts the story of the courtship of the young woman by a stranger from the clan.

Leila (1999)

This film tells the story of a semi modern Iranian couple, who are trying to fight the old beliefs and old generation. This is a failing battle because the man is not strong enough.

Lantouri (2016)

Lantouri is the name of a gang that mugs people in broad daylight on the streets of Tehran and breaks into homes in the city’s rich northern district. The gang also kidnaps children from families who have become wealthy through corruption and embezzlement of state funds. The film begins with the confessions of individual gang members. Sociologists, human rights activists and political hardliners also have their say. Gang member Pasha runs amok because Maryam, a socially committed, self-confident journalist, does not reciprocate his feelings. The badly injured young woman demands lex talionis – the law, applicable in Iran, of ‘an eye for an eye’.

What's the Time In Your World? (2015)

A woman comes back from Paris to her country after a long time. She meets a man that she hardly knows, but he knows a lot about her life.

White Nights (2003)

A young university professor, who leads a quiet and reclusive life and fills his life with reading and teaching literature, meet a young girl who has altered the course of her life for the sake of a man she loves. She has promised to meet her beloved at a certain spot on four consecutive nights exactly one year after their last meeting. The young professor's encounter with the young and passionate girl during four nights brings about significant changes in both of their lives and beliefs. Now concepts like love, literature and expection have a new meaning for them.

Butterfly Stroke (2020)

After leaking of a video of her class in a women only swimming pool, Parvaneh is brutally murdered by her husband, Hashem, who seeks a way to redeem his reputation and dignity as the godfather in the neighborhood. Hashem’s brother, Hojat, embarks a journey into the labyrinths of underground in Tehran to find out who is responsible for this dirty game. Once wrongfully accused for smuggling drugs, he returns to the world of crime to trace his brother’s rivals…

A Dragon Arrives! (2016)

On Jan. 22, 1965, the day before the Iranian prime minister is assassinated, a car drives up to a shipwreck. Inside the wreck, a banished political prisoner has hung himself and the walls are covered in diary entries, literary quotes, and strange symbols. Fifty years later, the evidence, including intelligence tape recordings, is found in a box. The contents attest to the fact that the inspector and his colleagues were arrested, but why?