شبی که ماه کامل شد | When the Moon Was Full / Shabi Ke Mah Kamel Shod (2019)

A young woman from southern Tehran falls in love with a young man from Zahedan, and after the wedding she discovers that the marriage will take her far from home. Shabi Ke Mah Kamel Shod, known in English as When the Moon Was Full, is Narges Abyar's drama based on a true story, and it was the big winner of the 37th Fajr Film Festival.

Faezeh, Abdolhamid and a Journey to Pakistan

Faezeh Mansouri meets Abdolhamid Rigi when he is working in a shop in a Zahedan bazaar. They marry, and Abdolhamid takes her to Pakistan, with her brother Shahab travelling alongside. Abdolhamid is the younger brother of Abdolmalek Rigi, leader of the armed group Jundallah, and Faezeh and Shahab become caught up in its activities. The film follows what happens to the siblings far from their family, and how Faezeh's parents try to learn her fate.

Elnaz Shakerdoost and Houtan Shakiba

Elnaz Shakerdoost plays Faezeh and Houtan Shakiba plays Abdolhamid. Armin Rahimian is Abdolmalek Rigi, Pedram Sharifi plays Shahab, Fereshteh Sadre Orafaee plays the Rigi brothers' mother and Shabnam Moghaddami plays Faezeh's mother. Amin Miri, Banipal Shoomoon and Farid Sajjadi Hosseini are also in the cast.

Filming in Pakistan and Bangladesh

Abyar wrote the screenplay with Morteza Esfahani, and her husband Mohammad Hossein Ghasemi produced. According to the production team, shooting in Pakistan was very difficult; when their visas could not be extended during the Pakistani elections, they completed the remaining scenes in a Pakistani neighbourhood of Dhaka. Masoud Sekhavatdoost composed the music.

Where the title comes from

The title is connected to the image of a man who changes on the night of the full moon, a reference to werewolf legend that the film uses for Abdolhamid's character.

Six Crystal Simorghs and a Major Hit

The film premiered on 12 Bahman 1397 (1 February 2019) at Fajr, where it was nominated in 13 categories and won six Crystal Simorghs: best film, best director, best actor, best actress, best supporting actress and best make-up. After its nationwide release in Khordad 1398 it became one of the most successful non-comedy films in the history of Iranian box office.

When the Moon Was Full FAQ

When the Moon Was Full is an intense, large-scale drama that also works as a love story gone badly wrong.