The Old Bachelor

Oktay Baraheni's 2025 Iranian film follows two middle-aged brothers living with their father in the same house. The father is angry and domineering; his second wife has left him and the full weight now falls on his elder son. The younger brother imagines ways of killing him. The film does not address economic collapse directly but makes it felt in every scene. Being unable to leave the house, to find work or to marry ages the characters under one roof, and the father's authority feeds on that enclosure. Leila Hatami and Hamed Behdad are in the cast. The telling is close to theatre; the setting barely changes and the tension comes entirely from dialogue. The film's violence is not physical but verbal and continuous. Who it's for: those who like drama about power inside the family in Iran. Who it's not for: anyone seeking an emotionally comfortable watch; there is no exit from the humiliation and pressure across the film.