Overview: Black Rabbit, White Rabbit is a mysterious M.C. Escher-like thriller about reality and illusion from Iranian master Shahram Mokri (FISH & CAT, CARELESS CRIME).

Premiering at the 30th Busan International Film Festival, where it received the Vision Asia Award, the film went on to screen at major festivals including BFI London, Chicago, and Singapore, further solidifying Mokri’s reputation as one of contemporary cinema’s most formally inventive directors.

This U.S. release includes three rare early short films (The Dragonfly Storm, Limits of the Circle, and Ando-C), a new audio commentary, and a visual essay exploring the film’s intricate design. Presented in Tajik and Russian with English subtitles and running 139 minutes, Black Rabbit, White Rabbit stands as a bold continuation of Mokri’s singular cinematic language--an intellectually demanding, visually hypnotic meditation on time, perception, and the illusion of narrative certainty.

Blu-ray Verdict: Black Rabbit, White Rabbit is a 2025 mystery drama from acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Shahram Mokri, co-written with Nasim Ahmadpour and starring Babak Karimi, Hasti Mohammai, and Kibriyo Dilyobova. Known for his structurally complex, time-looping narratives, Mokri continues his exploration of nonlinear storytelling with a film that unfolds like a cinematic labyrinth.

Built around interlocking storylines--a fatal gun deal, a film production in progress, and a woman confined within her home--the narrative evolves through repetition, mirrored identities, and uncanny coincidences, blurring the boundaries between reality, fiction, and the act of filmmaking itself.

Mokri first gained international recognition with Fish & Cat (2013), a single-take thriller celebrated for its fluid camera movement and cyclical structure, followed by Invasion (2017), which further developed his fascination with temporal dislocation and narrative recursion. His later film Careless Crime (2020) deepened these themes, intertwining past and present through a meta-cinematic reflection on a real-life historical tragedy.

The film has some unusual filming techniques employed from the off, such as protracted continuous takes and such, and as much as they don’t always work, they are all at the very least employed consistently. Indeed, when a filmmaker has a wealth of creativity to draw from, it may be difficult for the director to rein himself in, as is the case here, which is ok, in the whole, but just maybe some of the scenes could have been better trimmed.

That said, given that such a directorial tendency can most certainly, at times, undermine a project with real potential, I can honestly say that Black Rabbit, White Rabbit is definitely to be commended for being an original and ambitious effort.

With Black Rabbit, White Rabbit, Mokri extends this body of work into even more abstract territory, employing doubles, doppelgängers, and symbolic objects--most notably a mysterious firearm--to create a shifting network of cause and effect that resists linear interpretation.

Bonus Features:
1st ever U.S. release
Three ultra-rare early Mokri short films: The Dragonfly Storm (Toofan-e Sanjaghak) (2002, 15 min.); Limits of the Circle (Mahdoodeh-ye Dayereh) (2005, 15 min.); Ando-C (2007, 15 min.). In Persian with English subtitles
New audio commentary by film programmer and critic Tori Potenza
New visual essay: “The Maze: Entrances and Exits in Black Rabbit, White Rabbit” (2026, 13 min.) by filmmaker and scholar Stephen Broomer

Black Rabbit, White Rabbit - Official Trailer

Official Purchase Link

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