Best Iranian Movies (Until 2020)
by ali-gb | created - 31 Mar 2020 | updated - 17 Sep 2021 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Turtles Can Fly (2004)
PG-13 | 98 min | Drama, War
Near the Iraqi-Turkish border on the eve of an American invasion, refugee children like 13-year-old Kak (Ebrahim), gauge and await their fate.
Director: Bahman Ghobadi | Stars: Soran Ebrahim, Avaz Latif, Saddam Hossein Feysal, Hiresh Feysal Rahman
Votes: 20,712 | Gross: $0.26M
2. A Time for Drunken Horses (2000)
Not Rated | 80 min | Drama, War
Young Iranian Kurdish siblings try to save the youngest of them, who is seriously ill.
Director: Bahman Ghobadi | Stars: Ayoub Ahmadi, Rojin Younessi, Amaneh Ekhtiar-dini, Madi Ekhtiar-dini
Votes: 8,815 | Gross: $0.70M
3. Night Bus (2007)
90 min | Drama, Romance, War
Two young Iranian soldiers guard a bus load of prisoners of war on a trip to prison.
Director: Kiumars Poorahmad | Stars: Khosro Shakibai, Mohammad Reza Forutan, Amir Mohammad Zand, Elnaz Shakerdoost
Votes: 630
4. A Separation (2011)
PG-13 | 123 min | Drama
A married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.
Director: Asghar Farhadi | Stars: Payman Maadi, Leila Hatami, Sareh Bayat, Shahab Hosseini
Votes: 258,089 | Gross: $7.10M
5. Persepolis (2007)
PG-13 | 96 min | Animation, Biography, Drama
A precocious and outspoken Iranian girl grows up during the Islamic Revolution.
Directors: Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi | Stars: Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Gena Rowlands, Danielle Darrieux
Votes: 99,992 | Gross: $4.45M
6. Children of Heaven (1997)
PG | 89 min | Drama, Family, Sport
After a boy loses his sister's pair of shoes, he goes on a series of adventures in order to find them. When he can't, he tries a new way to "win" a new pair.
Director: Majid Majidi | Stars: Mohammad Amir Naji, Amir Farrokh Hashemian, Bahare Seddiqi, Nafise Jafar-Mohammadi
Votes: 80,495 | Gross: $0.93M
7. The Music Man (2007)
107 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
Not being able to work because of the religious country's prejudice against music, a talented Santour player has to deal with poverty, addiction and the absence of his ex-wife.
Director: Dariush Mehrjui | Stars: Bahram Radan, Golshifteh Farahani, Masoud Rayegan, Roya Teymourian
Votes: 9,340
8. Bench Cinema (2016)
117 min | Comedy, Drama
Nasi spends months after release from prison, watching the films and memorizes all the lines. He then travels around to perform the films as a one man show on a bench. Gradually he forms a theatre group called Cinema Bench...
Director: Mohammad Rahmanian | Stars: Ali Omrani, Mahtab Nasirpour, Mohammad Amir Naji, Ashkan Khatibi
Votes: 325
9. Redhat and Cousin (1995)
92 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
A boy travels a long way from his village to Tehran to work as a showman in a kid's show; but finds it harder than he thought.
Director: Iraj Tahmasb | Stars: Morteza Ahmadi, Akbar Doodkar, Farokhlagha Hushmand, Hamid Jebeli
Votes: 4,901
10. The Runner (1984)
Not Rated | 94 min | Drama
After enrolling in a school, an impoverished boy finds conflict with his classmates and decides to compete to earn their respect.
Director: Amir Naderi | Stars: Madjid Niroumand, Abbas Nazeri, Musa Torkizadeh
Votes: 2,322
11. About Elly (2009)
TV-PG | 119 min | Drama, Mystery
The mysterious disappearance of a kindergarten teacher during a picnic in the north of Iran is followed by a series of misadventures for her fellow travelers.
Director: Asghar Farhadi | Stars: Taraneh Alidoosti, Golshifteh Farahani, Shahab Hosseini, Merila Zare'i
Votes: 57,057 | Gross: $0.11M
12. Hamoun (1990)
Not Rated | 120 min | Drama
Hamoon's wife is leaving him. He is also unsuccessfully trying to finish his Ph. D. thesis. He is forced to reexamine his life. In a series of flashbacks and dreams, Hamoon tries to figure out what he did wrong.
Director: Dariush Mehrjui | Stars: Khosro Shakibai, Ezzatolah Entezami, Hossein Sarshar, Bita Farahi
Votes: 7,233
13. Taste of Cherry (1997)
Not Rated | 95 min | Drama
An Iranian man drives his car in search of someone who will quietly bury him under a cherry tree after he commits suicide.
Director: Abbas Kiarostami | Stars: Homayoun Ershadi, Abdolhosein Bagheri, Afshin Khorshid Bakhtiari, Safar Ali Moradi
Votes: 36,569 | Gross: $0.31M
14. Walnut Tree (2020)
100 min | Drama, History, War
Qader, a bricklayer from Sardasht in western Iran whose wife is pregnant with her 4th child, suddenly found himself amid a war crime perpetrated by the Saddam regime. On June 28th, 1987 ... See full summary »
Director: Mohammad Hossein Mahdavian | Stars: Payman Maadi, Mina Sadati, Minoo Sharifi, Mehran Modiri
Votes: 2,193
15. Penniless (2009)
108 min | Comedy, Drama
A haughty acclaimed newly married fashion designer named Iraj is shown the door by his boss after the boss's son arrives at Iran to take over his father's company. Iraj reluctant to ... See full summary »
Director: Hamid Nematollah | Stars: Bahram Radan, Leila Hatami, Nader Fallah, Siamak Ansari
Votes: 2,683
16. The Tenants (1987)
109 min | Comedy, Drama
The tenants of a rundown building on the outskirts of Tehran with no legal heir face major housing problems to deal with: major repairs and threat of eviction by greedy building manager who wants to own the building.
Director: Dariush Mehrjui | Stars: Akbar Abdi, Ezzatolah Entezami, Faramarz Fardtombekian, Farimah Farjami
Votes: 2,739
17. Life and a Day (2016)
112 min | Drama
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.
Director: Saeed Roustayi | Stars: Payman Maadi, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Parinaz Izadyar, Shabnam Moghadami
Votes: 17,460
18. The Lizard (2004)
115 min | Comedy, Drama
A recently jailed petty thief disguises as a Mullah and succeeds in escaping; but has to stay in the Mullah' role longer than he expected to.
Director: Kamal Tabrizi | Stars: Parviz Parastui, Bahram Ebrahimi, Reza Saeedi, Shahrokh Foroutanian
Votes: 22,385
19. The Paternal House (2012)
97 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
The consequences of a father and son's violent act reverberate through three generations of their family.
Director: Kianoush Ayari | Stars: Mehdi Hashemi, Shahab Hosseini, Mehran Rajabi, Nazanin Farahani
Votes: 1,035
20. The Salesman (2016)
PG-13 | 124 min | Drama, Thriller
While Ranaa and Emad, a married couple, are participating in a production of "Death of a Salesman," she is assaulted in their new home, which leaves him determined to find the perpetrator over his wife's traumatized objections.
Director: Asghar Farhadi | Stars: Shahab Hosseini, Taraneh Alidoosti, Mina Sadati, Babak Karimi
Votes: 64,589 | Gross: $2.40M
21. M like Mother (2006)
PG | 113 min | Drama
What appears to be a grand love story turns sour when parents-to-be discover that their unborn child will likely be born with serious birth defects, as a result of the mother's exposure to ... See full summary »
Director: Rasool Mollagholi Poor | Stars: Golshifteh Farahani, Hosein Yari, Jamshid Hashempur, Sahar Dolatshahi
Votes: 5,693
22. No Date, No Signature (2017)
99 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
When Dr. Kaveh Nariman, a forensic pathologist, comes to work he encounters a corpse that looks familiar.
Director: Vahid Jalilvand | Stars: Navid Mohammadzadeh, Amir Aghaee, Hediyeh Tehrani, Zakieh Behbahani
Votes: 6,531 | Gross: $0.04M
23. Parviz (2012)
107 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Parvis, a fifty-year-old man who has lived his entire life with his father and never held a job, is suddenly, kicked out from his home, as his father decides to remarry.
Director: Majid Barzegar | Stars: Levon Haftvan, Mahmoud Behrouzian, Homeyra Nonahali, Ali Ramez
Votes: 1,004
24. Suddenly a Tree (2019)
92 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Farhad tells the story of his life to a psychiatrist.
Director: Safi Yazdanian | Stars: Payman Maadi, Mahnaz Afshar, Zohreh Abbasi, Shaghayegh Dehghan
Votes: 612
25. Drown (2020)
120 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A film of a woman swimming in a pool is distributed through the internet. Now her husband and her brother are after finding the one who is responsible for that and taking revenge on him.
Director: Mohammad Kart | Stars: Javad Ezati, Tannaz Tabatabaei, Amir Aghaee, Pantea Bahram
Votes: 5,779
26. Offside (2006)
PG | 93 min | Comedy, Drama, Sport
The struggle of women in a country that excludes them from entering stadiums.
Director: Jafar Panahi | Stars: Sima Mobarak-Shahi, Shayesteh Irani, Ayda Sadeqi, Mohammad Asarian
Votes: 8,594 | Gross: $0.18M
27. A Dragon Arrives! (2016)
105 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
An orange Chevrolet Impala drives across a cemetery towards an abandoned shipwreck in the middle of a desert landscape. It is the 22nd of January, 1965. The day before, the Iranian prime ... See full summary »
Director: Mani Haghighi | Stars: Amir Jadidi, Ehsan Goodarzi, Homayoun Ghanizadeh, Nader Fallah
Votes: 2,858
28. The Report (1977)
112 min | Drama
The life of a tax collector who is accused of taking bribes, and also has to deal with other problems at home, including the suicide attempt of his wife.
Director: Abbas Kiarostami | Stars: Kurosh Afsharpanah, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Mostafa Tari, Mehdi Montazar
Votes: 1,255
29. The Song of Sparrows (2008)
PG | 96 min | Drama, Family
When an ostrich-rancher focuses on replacing his daughter's hearing aid, which breaks right before crucial exams, everything changes for a struggling rural family in Iran. Karim motorbikes ... See full summary »
Director: Majid Majidi | Stars: Mohammad Amir Naji, Maryam Akbari, Kamran Dehghan, Hamid Aghazi
Votes: 11,081 | Gross: $0.12M
30. Lovely Trash (2013)
86 min | Drama, Fantasy
It is about a family who one night got the opportunity to solve their mother's problem.
Director: Mohsen Amiryoussefi | Stars: Saber Abar, Akbar Abdi, Ali Araghchi, Mojtaba Batvandi
Votes: 1,442
31. Law of Tehran (2019)
131 min | Action, Crime, Drama
The police are after a drug lord named Naser Khakzad, but when they finally manage to catch him, he tries whatever he can think of to escape and save his family.
Director: Saeed Roustayi | Stars: Payman Maadi, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Parinaz Izadyar, Farhad Aslani
Votes: 18,366
32. Gholamreza Takhti (2019)
105 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
The story of life of Gholam Reza Takhti from his childhood till adulthood, his matches and finally his death.
Director: Bahram Tavakoli | Stars: Alireza Goudarzi, Mahoor Alvand, Behnoosh Tabatabaei, Farhad Aeesh
Votes: 2,052
33. Bomb: A Love Story (2018)
96 min | Drama, Romance, War
The film is based on the Tehran's Bombardment conditions in 1988.
Director: Payman Maadi | Stars: Leila Hatami, Payman Maadi, Siamak Ansari, Habib Rezaei
Votes: 3,447
34. A Man of Integrity (2017)
PG-13 | 113 min | Drama
A drama about corruption and injustice in Iranian society. You are the oppressed, or you have to join the oppressor to survive.
Director: Mohammad Rasoulof | Stars: Reza Akhlaghirad, Soudabeh Beizaee, Nasim Adabi, Zeinab Shabani
Votes: 2,628
35. The Color of Paradise (1999)
PG | 90 min | Drama, Family
The story of Mohammed, a blind Iranian boy and his father, Hashem, who is always oscillating between accepting his son as he is and abandoning him, as he represents a burden for him, after the loss of his wife.
Director: Majid Majidi | Stars: Hossein Mahjoub, Mohsen Ramezani, Salameh Feyzi, Farahnaz Safari
Votes: 18,167 | Gross: $1.81M
36. The Glass Agency (1998)
114 min | Action, Drama, Romance
The Glass Agency is the story of a war veteran living in post war Iran. It depicts veterans who are suffering from social problems after the war. Society does not understand them and the ... See full summary »
Director: Ebrahim Hatamikia | Stars: Parviz Parastui, Reza Kianian, Habib Rezaei, Ghasem Zare
Votes: 7,252
37. No One Knows About Persian Cats (2009)
106 min | Drama, Music
Iranian musicians Negar and Ashkan look for band members to play at a London concert - and the visas that allow them to leave Tehran to do so.
Director: Bahman Ghobadi | Stars: Negar Shaghaghi, Ashkan Koshanejad, Hamed Behdad, Babak Mirzakhani
Votes: 7,470 | Gross: $0.08M
38. Yeva (2017)
94 min | Drama
Yeva is a young woman who escapes her influential in-laws with her daughter Nareh, after her husband's tragic death and takes refuge in one of the villages of Karabakh, Azerbaijan - Yeva is... See full summary »
Director: Anahid Abad | Stars: Narine Grigoryan, Shant Hovhannisyan, Marjan Avetisyan, Rozi Avetisyan
Votes: 239
39. Sheeple (2018)
103 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
The story of a gang of drug dealers in the south of Tehran who has sheltered many youngsters and orphans from the streets. Shahin and Shakoor who are brothers are leading the gang but when ... See full summary »
Director: Houman Seyyedi | Stars: Navid Mohammadzadeh, Farhad Aslani, Farid Sajjadi Hosseini, Marjan Ettefaghian
Votes: 7,413
40. Absolutely Tame Is a Horse (2011)
89 min | Comedy, Drama
A corrupted police officer insists on bribing a broke man, so he has to go to everybody and do everything in order to be able to pay him in the very night.
Director: Abdolreza Kahani | Stars: Reza Attaran, Habib Rezaei, Mahtab Keramati, Parsa Pirouzfar
Votes: 2,276
41. Beautiful City (2004)
98 min | Drama, Romance
In Islamic Iran, how much is a woman worth in comparison with a man, and who pays the difference? This film is tale of vengeance, labyrinthine judicial procedure & the concept of "blood money."
Director: Asghar Farhadi | Stars: Faramarz Gharibian, Taraneh Alidoosti, Babak Ansari, Ahoo Kheradmand
Votes: 6,186
42. Where Is the Friend's House? (1987)
Not Rated | 83 min | Drama, Family
Eight-year-old Ahmed has mistakenly taken his friend Mohammad's notebook. He wants to return it, or else his friend will be expelled from school. The boy determinedly sets out to find Mohammad's home in the neighbouring village.
Director: Abbas Kiarostami | Stars: Babek Ahmed Poor, Ahmed Ahmed Poor, Khodabakhsh Defaei, Iran Outari
Votes: 18,572
43. So Close, So Far (2005)
121 min | Drama
Dr. Alam, a very profiled specialist in neurology and a successful surgeon, is drowned in his professional and social work, in a way that he has totally forgotten all about his son Saman. ... See full summary »
Director: Reza Mirkarimi | Stars: Alireza Phoenix, Masoud Rayegan, Afshin Hashemi, Farbod Masoud Vaziri
Votes: 2,841
44. Baran (2001)
PG | 94 min | Drama, Romance