TEHRAN -- Veteran filmmaker Narges Abyar puts a fresh spin on one of Iran’s most popular post-revolution love stories with Bamdad-e Khomar (The Drunkard Morning), transforming Fattaneh Haj Seyed-Javadi’s bestselling 1990s novel into a layered exploration of class, gender and personal agency.
Screenwriter Hamid Akbari Khameneh — known for Mr. Leech, Two Days Late and co-writing the Iranian adaptation of The Guardian of the Field — praised Abyar’s approach in a recent statement shared with IRNA, saying the director “goes beyond nostalgia or retelling a romance” to examine the deeper cultural and historical meaning of choice in Iranian society.
“What Abyar delivers,” Akbari Khameneh noted, “is a series that on the surface looks like a classic love story, but beneath it speaks to the tension between emotion and reason — and more profoundly, between women and the social structures that confine them.”
Rather than attempting a line-for-line adaptation or a modernized version of the novel, Abyar crafts what he describes as “a requiem for the wounds of class,” tackling social divisions that remain central to Iran’s identity. 
Set in early 20th-century Tehran, the story follows Mahbubeh, a young woman from an affluent family who falls in love with a working-class carpenter — a romance that defies convention and class boundaries.
Visually, The Drunkard Morning bears Abyar’s signature control and compositional precision. The pacing derives more from emotional tension than from editing, with long, expressive takes and pauses that heighten the unspoken strain between characters. The filmmaker’s restraint allows the drama to breathe, turning silence and stillness into emotional engines.
Production design, always a strong point in Abyar’s work, remains one of the project’s highlights. This time, she tempers visual showmanship with a poetic realism that grounds the period setting while amplifying its emotional weight.
“The camera is more controlled than in her previous films,” Akbari Khameneh observed. “Suspense unfolds before the camera, not through it.”
Featuring an all-star ensemble cast — including Ali Mosaffa, Reza Kianian, Laleh Eskandari, Gelareh Abbasi, Tarlan Parvaneh, Navid Pourfaraj, Marjaneh Golchin, Golab Adineh, and Behnaz Jafari — the series marks one of Abyar’s most ambitious television ventures to date.
For the director, whose earlier works (When the Moon Was Full, Track 143) tackled themes of war, womanhood, and endurance, The Drunkard Morning continues her examination of the female experience within restrictive social frameworks.
Ultimately, Abyar’s The Drunkard Morning is less a straightforward adaptation than a cultural reflection — a period romance that doubles as social critique. 
“It’s not just about love,” Akbari Khameneh stated, “but about hearing the sound of bones cracking beneath the weight of class.”