TEHRAN – Filmmaker Khosrow Sinaii is busy these days with his new project “Malgorzata” telling the story of the Polish exodus to Iran in 1942 during World War II.

Sinaii began preliminary research and studies and made a trip to Poland about two months ago, said film producer Behruz Mofid, adding, “Sinaii is back in Iran now and is accomplishing writing the texts on Poland. Part of the studies will be carried out in England, and Sinaii will be making a trip there later.”
“The story begins in Poland, and then moves on to Russia, the Caspian Sea, Bandar (Port) Anzali, Isfahan and Tehran. Of course, the major story happens in Poland and Isfahan and is narrated by a polish girl named ‘Malgorzata,’” he explained.
“The telefilm is produced by Sima Film, a studio affiliated to IRIB, but is a huge project and we intend to ask Poland for financial support,” he added.
“Malgorzata” actually concludes Sinaii’s previous documentary named “The Lost Requiem” featuring the same theme, Mofid stated.
Sinaii’s “The Lost Requiem” tells the story of the war-time exodus to Iran of hundreds of thousands of Polish citizens released from the Soviet labor camps of Siberia in 1942, when leaking ships crammed with emaciated men, women and children began arriving at the Caspian port of Anzali.
Their condition was desperate. Within days of their arrival, thousands had died from malnutrition and typhus. Of those who survived, the men traveled onwards to join the armies of the Allied Forces in Syria and Lebanon. The remainder (mostly women and children) remained in Iranian refugee camps for up to three years, their lives totally transformed in the process.
Twenty five years after those dramatic events, Khosrow Sinaii began to seek out those who had chosen to remain behind in Iran. Their reminiscences, together with the many graves left behind in Tehran, Anzali and Ahvaz, bear testimony to a chapter of history almost erased from the public memory.
The documentary never had the chance to be screened in Iran, but was shown in Poland two years ago and was received with enthusiastic appreciation.