How did religion shape Iran across more than 2,000 years of history?

Long before the Islamic Republic, Iran was home to powerful Persian empires and one of the ancient world's most influential religious traditions: Zoroastrianism.

Over the centuries, Iran experienced extraordinary transformations — from the Achaemenid and Sasanian empires to the arrival of Islam, the rise of Persian Islamic civilization, the Safavid transformation of Iran into a predominantly Shi'a society, the Pahlavi era, and the Revolution of 1979.

Yet Iran's older identities never simply disappeared. Ancient Persian traditions, Islam, Shi'a scholarship, poetry, language, festivals, and political institutions accumulated into layers that continue to shape the country today.

This documentary explores one central question:

How did faith shape Iran — and how did Iran reshape religion?

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