Outside/Inside (2026): Cast, Story and Release Details

Prepared by Movies Dock Editorial

Outside/Inside follows Ceci, a stray cat who gradually becomes part of director Maani Petgar’s home while remaining connected to the streets. Across seven years, this Iranian documentary blends an evolving human-animal relationship with unfinished films, neighbours, health concerns and changes in the wider world.

Outside/Inside is a 2026 Iranian documentary directed and written by Maani Petgar. The film centers on Ceci, a stray cat whose growing presence in the director’s home never fully separates her from street life.

Structured across seven years, the film combines an intimate record of companionship with fragments of personal and public change. Its Persian-language setting and hybrid, essay-film classification point to a reflective documentary concerned with time, observation and perspective.

Outside/Inside movie details

Story without spoilers

The film follows Ceci as she gradually settles into Maani Petgar’s home while continuing to exist between domestic life and the streets. Their relationship provides the documentary’s central thread, but the story also incorporates other cats and details from the director’s surroundings.

Alongside Ceci’s changing place in Petgar’s life are unfinished film projects, relationships with neighbours, deteriorating health, and events taking place in the city and across the country. Rather than presenting the cat simply as a conventional narrative character, the film uses her presence as a starting point for observing life beyond an exclusively human perspective.

What to expect

Outside/Inside is identified as a documentary, hybrid film and essay film, with a running time of 1 hour and 48 minutes. The seven-year time span suggests a work shaped by accumulation and gradual change rather than a narrowly defined event or conventional plot.

Viewers can expect an intimate chronicle built from the relationship between a filmmaker and a stray cat, alongside personal notes and wider social context. The supplied description also frames the film as a thinking film, emphasizing perspective and the passage of time without replacing the human viewpoint with a fixed alternative.

Cast and creative team

Maani Petgar is credited as both director and writer. No cast members are listed, consistent with the film’s documentary form and its focus on real-life observation rather than a conventional cast.

Release and production context

Outside/Inside is a 2026 production from Iran, spoken in Persian and produced by Unexposed film. It is listed as released on October 27, 2026, with a runtime of 1 hour and 48 minutes. The film is categorized as a documentary, with hybrid and essay-film elements also identified in its metadata.

Production companies: Unexposed film

Outside/Inside official trailer

Watch the official trailer on YouTube

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With its long observation period and focus on an unconventional human-animal bond, Outside/Inside presents a personal documentary structure that extends beyond Ceci alone. The film’s scope includes domestic life, creative work, health, community and broader events, all connected through the changing presence of one stray cat.

Film data:
TMDB