77 Hours

77 Hours is a Persian-language feature film of roughly 77 minutes, with English subtitles, written and directed by Vahid Mahdavi and produced by CVP CHAT Production, a London company (CVP CHAT LTD). Its makers call it one of the first ultra-realistic AI-hybrid political survival feature films. It is billed as a psychological thriller and political drama, and the press material says it is intended for adult audiences. Rather than a streaming or online release, it is being presented through selected cinema screenings and special events, and the official site 77hrs.com keeps the list of dates and tickets, which showed none available when it was read.

The production blends real actors with AI-generated cinematic environments. Press material says the new visual methods recreate the scale of unrest, hospital raids and urban violence, while Kayhan Life describes the mix as real actors with AI-assisted cinematic reconstruction, digital scene generation and evidence-based visual references. The film's site says direction, editing and visual design stayed in human hands and that advanced AI-assisted tools expanded the visual world; Mahdavi is credited as Director of AI Cinematic Workflow. No page names the models or software used. The film was produced in the UK, with scenes designed and reconstructed to evoke Tehran, because shooting in Iran was impossible, and Mahdavi told Kayhan Life that the cast is largely Iranians living abroad. The site says the ensemble numbers more than 58 performers, and names Kamal Rajaby, Reza Tayson, Fouad Fallahpour, Sara Nobakht and Keyvan Labib among them.

Mahdavi is an Iranian refugee filmmaker and former television professional, born in Isfahan in 1988, whose background includes television, film production, editing and visual storytelling. Kayhan Life says he wrote and directed an earlier title in 2021, given there as "Twenty Five Years Old Portrait". He told the paper the idea came quickly after the January 2026 events and that the film was written, produced and directed in a very compressed period, drawing on eyewitness accounts, citizen journalism and visual research. He calls it a work of human testimony, not propaganda, and says its violence is meant to reflect a violent reality.

Two trailers, both with Persian dialogue and English subtitles, were published on the production's YouTube channel; the record dates both to 15 June 2026. The main trailer had about 11,600 views when read on 2 October 2026, and the second about 8,200 on 6 October. Short clips about the film on Instagram reached 466,000 and 427,000 views by 6 October. A press release dated 26 June announced a private red-carpet screening at Curzon Soho in London on 10 July 2026. The official site's list, as repeated by the Iran Holocaust site, named public screenings in Toronto on 29 August and Copenhagen on 13 September 2026, and the film's site also says Mahdavi discussed it on GB News.

Coverage so far comes mostly from the makers' own press release and its reposts, the Kayhan Life interview and the film's own site. Mahdavi said the early reactions from people who had seen the trailer or private previews were strong and emotional, which is his own account. The GB News interviewer Josh Howie called the film "excellent" and "incredible", as quoted on the film's site, and Hollywood.AI lists it among the August 2026 winners of the AI International Film Festival, though that festival's own winners page did not show it when checked. No independent reviews have been found. The makers present it as the first feature to visualise the events of January 2026, which were largely hidden from the outside world by an internet blackout, and hope it will open wider conversations about the role of AI-assisted filmmaking in urgent political storytelling.