Saber Abar

Saber Abar (Persian: صابر اَبَر; born June 8, 1984) is an Iranian actor, director and writer. He is best known for his performance in About Elly (2008), directed by Academy Award-winning Asghar Farhadi. He has received various accolades, including two Iran Cinema Celebration Awards and an Iran's Film Critics and Writers Association Award, in addition to nominations for two Crystal Simorghs and two Hafez Awards.

Saber Abar
صابر اَبَر
Abar at the 2019 Fajr Film Festival
Born	(1984-06-08) June 8, 1984 (age 41) Tehran, Iran
Nationality	Iranian
Alma mater	Azad University
Occupations	Actor director writer photographer

Career

Acting career

Abar began his career hosting television shows such as Rainbow, a children's TV show, and a game show called In 100 Seconds'.^[1] He later gained recognition with his role in Mohsen Makhmalbaf's Sha'ere Zobale. In 2006, he starred alongside Ezzatollah Entezami in Minaye Shahr-e Khamush as a driver and that role earned him a Crystal Simorgh Prize Nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Abar's talent did not go unnoticed in Dayere Zangi (2007), as he then was offered a role in Asghar Farhadi's About Elly. The movie received positive reviews, such as the review from David Bordwell, who called it a masterpiece. Abar played "Alireza", whose fiancée goes missing. The role earned him another nomination in the Fajr International Film Festival.

Saber has also starred in Hich (2009), Nokhodi (2009), Thirteen 59 (2010) and Entehaye Khiabane Hashtom (2010) and had a cameo appearance in Ayene-haye Ruberu (2010).^[2]

He plays the main role in The Frog.

Theatre career

Abar has starred alongside the likes of Farhad Aeesh, Mehdi Hashemi and Shahab Hosseini in Kargadan (2008), directed by Farhad Aeesh. He has also starred in Dastan-e yek Pellekan (2009), directed by Reza Guran, Caligula (2010), directed by Homayoun Ghanizadeh, and Jire-bandie pare Khorus baraye Sugvari (2011), directed by Ali Narges Nejad. In 2010, Saber directed the play Vav-ha va Virgul-ha.^[3]

Writing

Abar wrote a bilingual book, "To Seven Houses Away," about Iranian grandmothers across the country of Iran, published by Inja, Middle Of The Town (اینجا میان شهر) in Tehran.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes	Ref(s)
2005	Poet of the Wastes		Mohammad Ahmadi		[4]
2007	Colors of Memory	Iraj Bahrami	Amir Shahab Razavian		[5]
2008	Tambourine	Mohammad	Parisa Bakhtavar		[6]
	Three Women	Hamed	Manijeh Hekmat
2009	About Elly	Alireza	Asghar Farhadi		[7][8]
	Lil' Pea		Jalal Fatemi
	Do Not Get a Reward from the President		Kamal Tabrizi
2010	Nothing	Nima	Abdolreza Kahani
2011	Thirteen 59		Saman Salur
	Here Without Me	Ehsan	Bahram Tavakoli
	Facing Mirrors	Sadegh	Negar Azarbeyjani		[9]
	Mr. Yousef	Sirous	Ali Rafi'i
2012	Kissing the Moon-Like Face		Homayoun As'adian		[10]
	Modest Reception		Mani Haghighi
	The Snow on the Pines		Payman Maadi
	At the End of 8th Street	Bahram	Alireza Amini
2013	Shallow Yellow Sky	Mehran	Bahram Tavakoli
	Nowhere, Nobody	Davood	Ebrahim Sheibani
	Acrid	Khosrow	Kiarash Asadizadeh		[11]
	Lovely Trash	Amir	Mohsen Amiryousefi
2014	Sending a Condolences Ad for Newspaper	Taha	Ebrahim Ebrahimian
	Tales	Narges's husband	Rakhshan Banietemad
	Everything for Sale	Akbar	Amir Hossein Saghafi
	Dreamy	Houman	Fereydoun Jeyrani
2015	Closer	Ali	Mostafa Ahmadi
	Crazy Rook	Kaveh Najm	Abolhassan Davoodi
	I Am Diego Maradona	The Writer	Bahram Tavakoli
	Dowry's Sugar Bowl	Atta	Ali Mollagholipour
2017	Villa Dwellers	Hamid	Monir Gheidi
	Searing Summer	Farhad	Ebrahim Irajzad		[12]
	Meyami's Millioner	Reza	Mostafa Ahmadi
2018	Pig	Himself	Mani Haghighi
	Hat-trick	Keyvan	Ramtin Lavafi		[13][14]
	Tale of the Sea	Amir Dashti	Bahman Farmanara
	I Want to Dance		Bahman Farmanara
	In Between	Detective	Aliyar Rasti	Short film
2019	A Hairy Tale	Danesh	Homayoun Ghanizadeh		[15]
	Russian	Ebrahim	Amir Hossein Saghafi
2021	Under Low Light		Mohammad Parvizi
2022	No Prior Appointment	Attorney	Behrouz Shoeibi
	Without Her	Babak	Arian Vazirdaftari
2023	After Leaving	Arash	Reza Nejati
	Leather Jacket Man	Agent	Hossein Mirzamohammadi
	A Relic of the South	Rana's boss	Hossein Amiri Doomari, Pedram Pouramiri
	Maria	Peyman	Mehdi Asghar Azghadi
2024	Summer Time	Amir	Mahmoud Kalari
	The Great Yawn of History	Malek	Aliyar Rasti		[16]
2025	Turtle		Bahman Kamyar		[17]

Web

Year	Title	Role	Director	Platform	Notes	Ref(s)
2020–2021	The Frog	Ramin Fayazi	Houman Seyyedi	Namava	Leading role	[18]
2023	The Translator	Mohandes	Bahram Tavakoli	Namava	Main role	[19]
2024	The Loser	Kaveh Badrloo	Amin Hosseinpour	Filimo	Main role	[20]
2025	Tasian	Saeed	Tina Pakravan	Filimo	Main role	[21]
	Cankel		Ramtin Lavafi	Starnet	Main role	[22]

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominated film work title	Result	Location	Notes
2007	Crystal Simorgh Award, 25th Fajr Film Festival	Best Supporting Actor	Colors of Memory	Nominated	Tehran, Iran	[23]
2007	11th Iran Cinema Celebration	Best Supporting Actor	Colors of Memory	Won	Tehran, Iran
2009	Crystal Simorgh Award, 27th Fajr Film Festival	Best Supporting Actor	About Elly	Nominated	Tehran, Iran	[23]
2010	14th Iran Cinema Celebration	Best Supporting Actor	About Elly	Won	Tehran, Iran	[24]
2010	3rd Iran's Film Critics and Writers Association Award	Best Supporting Actor	About Elly	Won	Tehran, Iran
2013	6th Iran's Film Critics and Writers Association Award	Best Supporting Actor	The Snow on the Pines	Nominated	Tehran, Iran
2013	6th Iran's Film Critics and Writers Association Award	Best Supporting Actor	Kissing the Moon-Like Face	Nominated	Tehran, Iran
2013	8th Rome Film Festival	Best Emerging Actors and Actresses (for entire cast)	Acrid	Won	Rome, Italy	[24][11][25]