کارگردان

What it means

کارگردان (kâr-gardân) means “director,” almost always in the cinema sense. The compound stitches کار (kâr) “work” to گردان (gardân) “turning, rotating, managing,” the present stem of گرداندن (gardândan) “to rotate, to run something.” A کارگردان is the one who turns the work, the person running the operation on a film set.

Pure Persian. No Arabic component. Used for theater directors too, but film is the default reading. The job-name کارگردانی (kârgardâni) means “directing” as a profession.

How to use it

• این فیلم رو کی کارگردانی کرده؟ (in film ro ki kârgardâni karde?) “Who directed this film?”
• کارگردان مورد علاقه‌ام اصغر فرهادیه (kârgardân-e mowred-e alâqe-am Asghar Farhâdiye) “My favorite director is Asghar Farhadi”
• یه کارگردان جوان ایرانی (ye kârgardân-e javân-e irâni) “a young Iranian director”
• کارگردانی کردن (kârgardâni kardan) “to direct (a film)”
• دستیار کارگردان (dastyâr-e kârgardân) “assistant director”
• اولین فیلم بلندش رو کارگردانی کرد (avalin film-e bolandash ro kârgardâni kard) “He directed his first feature film”

Iranian cinema context

The word carries weight because Iran punches above its size in world cinema. Abbas Kiarostami built the slow, contemplative style that influenced filmmakers from Tokyo to São Paulo. Asghar Farhadi won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film twice, for A Separation in 2012 and The Salesman in 2017. Jafar Panahi has been arrested, banned from filmmaking, and barred from leaving Iran multiple times, yet he keeps making films and won the Cannes Palme d’Or in 2025 for It Was Just an Accident.

For Iranians at home and in the diaspora, the word کارگردان does not just mean a job. It often means a moral position: someone who chose to keep telling Iran’s story under censorship, exile, or arrest. Bahram Beyzai, Dariush Mehrjui, and Rakhshan Bani-Etemad each carry that same charge.

Common confusions

Beginners often mix up کارگردان (kâr-gardân) with کارگر (kârgar) “worker” or کارمند (kârmand) “employee, clerk.” The shared کار (kâr) “work” prefix throws people off. The second half disambiguates: gardân is “turning,” gar is “doer,” mand is “having.” Three different jobs, one shared root.

Related words

• فیلم (film) “film”
• تهیه‌کننده (tahiye-konande) “producer”
• فیلمبردار (filmbardâr) “cinematographer”
• جشنواره فیلم فجر (jashnvâre-ye film-e Fajr) “Fajr Film Festival,” Iran’s main domestic festival
• سینما (sinemâ) “cinema”

References

• Dehkhoda
• Vajehyab