Known for Acting
Homayoun Ershadi, sometimes spelled Homayon Ershadi (May 26th, 1947 - November 11th, 2025), was an Iranian actor. Ershadi was born in Isfahan, Iran, in 1947. He studied architecture in Italy and worked in that field. Acclaimed Iranian New Wave director Abbas Kiarostami chose him to play the leading role in Taste of Cherry. A non-professional actor, who started acting in his middle age, he has had immediate success in both cinema and television, with his expressionless, relaxed face and monotonous voice often giving his characters an intellectual personality. Most recently, he can be seen in the movie The Kite Runner, playing the role of Baba. He is one of the few Iran-based Iranian actors who are permitted to act in Western movies. He currently resides in Karaj, Iran.
Born
March 26, 1947
Died
November 11, 2025 (age 78)
Birthplace
Isfahan, Iran
Filmography
57 films, 2 shows


Mahoor
2025
country: Iran
A romantic story set against the backdrop of social events and war; an anti-war narrative that depicts the impact of violence on human lives and emphasizes the importance of peace.
Sky Blue
Sky Blue
2024 · 1h 26m
country: Iran
Synopsis: It is about the life of a young boy and girl who face various family and social issues...


Nilgoon
2024 · 1h 25m
country: Unknown
This movie is a romantic story about the life of a young boy and girl who face various family and social issues and...


Resembling Madness
2023
country: Iran


Fragrant
2023 · 1h 49m
country: Unknown
Ali has a great talent for perfumery and will soon become a father. Along the way, he faces new challenges and must complete his unfinished work in a limited amount of time...


The Sixth Day
2022
country: Unknown
A prisoner named Ahmed, who has only five days to find the answer to a few riddles in order to survive.


Laleh
2022 · 2h
country: Unknown
Laleh is a true story of a young woman in post-revolution Iran, struggling against all odds to break through in one of the most male dominated sports worldwide.


The Town
2022 · 1h 45m
country: Iran
The story of a young man who is interested in acting, who is accepted in the audition of a big movie, and in order to join this project and achieve his dream of becoming an actor, he has to accept the special conditions and mental and psychological exercises of the acting group in an isolated town.


Mahan
2022 · 1h 40m
country: Unknown
Mahan finds out that he has cancer


Revision Sentence
2021
country: Unknown


A Bumpy Story
2021 · 1h 25m
country: Unknown
An author dreams of writing an extraordinary story. A special moment comes when the dream comes true and the ability to write a fantastic story is emerged, but it is apparently too late…


No Choice
2020 · 1h 48m
country: Unknown
A young homeless girl supports herself as a surrogate mother for money. A human rights attorney tries to help her change her life, but ithe challenges seem insurmountable. This is a rarely seen side of Iranian society.


Blue Like the Sky
2019 · 1h 55m
country: Unknown
A documentary about the history of Esteghlal F.C. From Docharkheh savaran to Taj, to Esteghlal.


Cypress Under Water
2018 · 1h 45m
country: Iran
The secret of the worldview of dignity is revealed? This mystery of sleep will spit Marsh, Mahro, Goodarz, Bahram, Jahangir Major Pushis. Jahanbakhsh begins a long journey to prove his innocence and the return of tranquility. A journey that will end the life of many of them.


Hattrick
2018 · 1h 32m
country: Unknown
Four friends run over something after a party in this psychological thriller set in Iran of the empty lives of the middle class when they get together in groups, emotional explosions start happening along moral fault lines.


Waiting for Kiarostami
2017 · 1h 32m
country: China
Inspired by real events, Waiting for Kiarostami focuses on the life of Dorsa, a medical student at Ningbo University in China, who has to choose between her father’s wish for her to become a doctor, and her own passion to become a singer and an actress. When Hossein Khandan nominates Dorsa to play the leading role in Abbas Kiarostami’s next film slated to shoot in China, Dorsa’s mom, who shares her passion for acting and the arts and is unconditionally on Dorsa’s side, becomes an acting coach to help her through the casting process; whereas her father opposes his daughter’s involvement in anything other than her studies. Dorsa faces some challenges in her quest to find a balance between her true passion and her family life.


Mohey
2017 · 1h 30m
country: Iran
Mohey is separated from her twin sister and abused after she is plucked from an orphanage as a girl. She becomes trapped in a life of underhand dealings and illegal trading, where her intellect and beauty are used as commodities. When she is coerced into a temporary marriage to secure a deal...


Lina
2017 · 1h 30m
country: Unknown
Maryam finds out that her parents are not her biological parents.


Italy Italy
2017 · 1h 42m
country: Iran
Barfa and Nader meet each other and get marry but little by little their life begin to reach it's crisis levels.


Dead End of Trust
2017 · 1h 43m
country: Iran
It's a simple story of fondness. "Dead End of Trust" tells the story of a love - from inside - a love made of same "blood" still some time remains which is worth more than what has lasted so far.


Calm Breaths
2017 · 1h 40m
country: Unknown
Mahia and Reza are a young couple shortly planning to marry. Reza is an architectural engineer and Mahia is his student. An accident in the neighbourhood takes place that changes the course of both their lives.


The Last Inhabitant
2016 · 1h 22m
country: Armenia
In an Armenian village, evicted as a result of the Armenian-Azeri conflict, Abgar stays behind all alone in a gradually shrinking enemy ring. He is waiting for his daughter, who became a witness to her husband's murder by an angry mob and was hospitalized with a mental disorder. An Azeri named Ibrahim offers Abgar to work on the construction of a mosque and promises to find and bring Abgar's daughter instead... A few days later, Ibrahim finds the girl, named Yurga, in one of the psychiatric hospitals of Baku and brings her to Abgar. Abgar wants to leave the village with his daughter, but his skills as a stonemason are still needed for the construction of a new mosque. Abgar realizes that this work in the Azerbaijani village will be endless and realizes that he's been trapped.


Ali and Nino
2016 · 1h 40m
country: Azerbaijan
Muslim prince Ali and Georgian aristocrat Nino have grown up in the Russian province of Azerbaijan. Their tragic love story sees the outbreak of the First World War and the world’s struggle for Baku’s oil. Ultimately they must choose to fight for their country’s independence or for each other.
The Little Black Fish
The Little Black Fish
2015
country: Iran


Utopia
2015 · 1h 35m
country: United Kingdom
Three interwoven stories of loneliness and isolation that centre around Janan, a woman from Afghanistan who travels to the UK for artificial insemination. Complications arise when William, a medical sciences student working in the clinic switches the donor's semen for his own.


Inadvertent
2014 · 1h 30m
country: Iran
Sometimes you try to control your surrounding events, but sometimes inadvertent occasions will change the course of your life.


A Most Wanted Man
2014 · 2h 1m
country: Germany
A Chechen Muslim illegally immigrates to Hamburg and becomes a person of interest for a covert government team tracking the movements of potential terrorists.


Apparition
2014 · 1h 35m
country: Iran
A drunken, boorish general tyrannises his wife and his maid. When the wife discovers that her husband and the maid are having an affair, she turns the maid out of the house, little realising that the young woman is pregnant with the general's child. Years later, the general is dead, and a younger generation has risen with a new outlook on life and new problems to face... This flamboyantly stylised melodrama, loosely adapted from Ibsen, is the newest work by one of the legendary figures of Iran's New Wave.


A 5 Star
2014 · 1h 45m
country: Iran
A story about a poor girl working in a 5 star hotel in tehran and the workers of the hotel when somthing priceless will stolen...


The Sinners
2013 · 1h 35m
country: Iran
Two homicide detectives investigates the murder of a woman ...


Good to Be Back
2013 · 1h 36m
country: Unknown
Dentist Farzad has returned to Iran after many years abroad to escape his anxieties and daily stresses. Farzad is delighted to be reunited with his old friend, Kambiz, who has been his seaside neighbor for years. However, the appearance of a mysterious object scuppers any hopes of a straightforward homecoming. When a doctor, Yasamin, gets dragged into the story, Farzad and Kambiz find their friendship threatened. A tale of chaos and the nostalgia of home, this comedy offers superb performances from its leads.


A Simple Love Story
2012 · 1h 41m
country: Iran
Gandom and Ali, who have been in love since childhood, have to overcome many obstacles to be together.


Zero Dark Thirty
2012 · 2h 37m
country: United States
A chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L. Team 6 in May, 2011.


Facing Mirrors
2012 · 1h 38m
country: Germany
Rana has chosen a path in order to support her family, while Adineh (Eddie) has fled his home and city to escape his complicated situation as a transsexual man prevented from living as his true self by his family. They find themselves on the same journey and caused to know each other in a better way.


Bi Khodahafezi
2012 · 1h 33m
country: Iran
The film tells the story of three young people, each of whom sets out from Bandar Abbas to Tehran to achieve a goal.


The Queen
2012 · 1h 46m
country: Iran
During the war between Iran and Iraq, a scout (Milad Keymaram), in the Abadan Oil Refinery, tries to reveal geographical coordinates of Iraqi soldiers' ambushes for Iranian army forces to kill them easily by bombardments. Meanwhile, he confronts with the soul of the previous killed scout (Mostafa Zamani) who did the same which makes a challenge for him, between his own human deep feelings and killing innocent people of enemy ...


Cheque
2012 · 1h 29m
country: Iran
Despite their different characters and beliefs, four persons are obliged to spend two nights and one whole day together as they are going to have their shares after cashing a check.


Orange Suit
2012 · 1h 47m
country: Iran
The story of a professional photographer Hamed Aban and the radical change in his life. The teacher of his son gives him a book about nature and the cleaning of it. This changes him radically. He goes and hires himself in the municipality, wearing the orange suit like them and cleaning the streets, collecting garbage. Meanwhile his wife who is in Europe back home and is very angry with him. She insists on him to get back to his former work but he refusing. Then she wants a divorce and to take the son with herself to Europe.


Principles
2011 · 1h 27m
country: Iran
Sarah is an architect who tries to figure out the best way to treat her boss.


The Turned World
2011 · 1h 28m
country: Azerbaijan
The joint struggle of the Azerbaijani and Iranian police against the forces organizing international drug trafficking.


Beloved Sky
2011 · 1h 23m
country: Iran
A young doctor whose name Shayan is got cancer. He decides to commit suicide but in the last moments something is happening that lead him to a remote village.


Life with Closed Eyes
2010
country: Iran


Aal
2010 · 1h 33m
country: Iran
Young engineer Sina, accompanied by his pregnant wife Fariba, is sent on a business mission to Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, by his company’s board of directors. As the couple’s sunny days turn to darkness, accidents begin to loom.


Agora
2009 · 2h 7m
country: Spain
A historical drama set in Roman Egypt, concerning philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria and her relationship with her slave Davus, who is torn between his love for her and the possibility of gaining his freedom by joining the rising tide of Christianity.


Shirin
2009 · 1h 32m
country: Iran
A hundred and fourteen famous Iranian theater and cinema actresses and a French star: mute spectators at a theatrical representation of Khosrow and Shirin, a Persian poem from the twelfth century, put on stage by Kiarostami. The development of the text -- long a favorite in Persia and the Middle East -- remains invisible to the viewer of the film, the whole story is told by the faces of the women watching the show.


The Kite Runner
2007 · 2h 8m
country: China
After spending years in California, Amir returns to his homeland in Afghanistan to help his old friend Hassan, whose son is in trouble.


From Afar
2006 · 1h 40m
country: Unknown
"From Afar" traces the malaise of a young artist and intellectual in three episodes: Book Burning, Breathing and Dawn. The Young protagonist lives in contemporary Tehran and he appears as a film student, an asthmatic businessman and a successful architect. In each story, he journeys toward a spiritual insight or emotion.


Havana File
2006 · 1h 34m
country: Iran
A scientist has to face many hurdles to be able to continue his work.


The Wet Dream
2006
country: Iran
16 year-old Arash is reaching puberty. After years of living with his mother, he leaves her to live with his father. Once there, he visits a girl who changes his life.


Portrait of a Lady Far Away
2005 · 1h 43m
country: Iran
An old engineer who has separated from his wife and son and is living alone receive a phone call from a woman who tells him she wants to commit suicide. This put him to face a challenge.


Somewhere Else
2003 · 1h 24m
country: Iran
Five characters are stuck on an island, from where they hope to escape to "somewhere else", the utopia of their dreams. Dr. Tavussi (Ahmad Najafi) offers to help them illegally cross the ...


The Fifth Reaction
2003 · 1h 46m
country: Iran
Fereshteh loses her home and her two sons after her husband's accidental death when Hadj Safdar, her stubborn and powerful father-in-law, forces her to return to her parents. She is faced with the loss of her visitation rights when Hadj plans to send his grandchildren to live in a remote town. With the help of her circle of women friends she tries to take them beyond his reach, but in a patriarchal society it is hard to find a safe haven.


Disturbant
2002 · 1h 41m
country: Iran
An unknown woman disturbs the marriage of a cinema superstar.


Kiarostami in Close up
2000 · 42m
country: Iran
A documentary that focuses on Abbas Kiarostami's cinematic philosophy talking to himself and other figures, and also seeks the opinion about his works both inside and outside his homeland.


The Pear Tree
1998 · 1h 35m
country: Iran
Mahmoud is suffering from writer's block and he is unable to continue the book he is currently working upon. He decides to take a break from his routine life and plans to visit his family's rural estate that is situated at north of Tehran. He also intends to complete his book in this visit. While at the estate, Mahmoud's attention is brought to the old Pear Tree that is situated behind the estate by the old gardener of the estate. Seeing the Pear Tree, Mahmoud thinks about his past - his infatuation towards his 14-year-old female cousin known only as M, his adolescent dreams, how that changed over the years. The rest of the film chronicles thoughts of Mahmoud and his past.


Taste of Cherry
1997 · 1h 39m
country: Iran
A middle-aged Tehranian man, Mr. Badii is intent on killing himself and seeks someone to bury him after his demise. Driving around the city, the seemingly well-to-do Badii meets with numerous people, including a Muslim student, asking them to take on the job, but initially he has little luck. Eventually, Badii finds a man who is up for the task because he needs the money, but his new associate soon tries to talk him out of committing suicide.


Kakadu
1995 · 1h 41m
country: Unknown
An alien is sent from Kakadu planet to earth for one week. He befriends a little girl Golnar and this is the beginning of their adventures.