TEHRAN -- Iranian filmmaker Khosro Sinaii received the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland for his documentary “The Lost Requiem”.

President Lech Kaczynski presented the medal to director Sinaii in a ceremony held on the sidelines of the Polish Film Festival in the city of Gdynia last Saturday.
“The Lost Requiem” tells the story of the wartime exodus to Iran by thousands of Polish citizens after being released from the Soviet labor camps of Siberia during World War II.
During the two months of April and August 1942, leaky ships crammed with emaciated men, women and children began arriving at the Caspian port of Anzali. Their condition was desperate and within days of their arrival, thousands had died from malnutrition and typhus.
Sinaii is internationally famous for over a hundred short films, documentaries and features. “In the Alleys of Love”, “Talking with a Shadow” and “Bride of Fire” are among his credits.
Photo: Khosro Sinaii attends a review session after a screening of his “Talking with a Shadow” during the 24th Fajr International Film Festival in Tehran in February 2006.