TEHRAN – Mohammad-Hossein Mahdavian’s new film “Walnut Tree”, on the profound tragedy of Iraq’s chemical attack on the Iranian town of Sardasht in 1987, has been warmly received by people in the Iranian Kurdish-speaking regions.

“Based on some reports from other Iranian cities that are screening a selection of films from the 38th Fajr Film Festival, ‘Walnut Tree’ has been warmly received, and the organizers were asked to arrange extra screenings for the film in the Kurdish cities of Kermanshah and Sanandaj,” Hossein Seyyedi, a member of the team of the organizers, said in a press release on Tuesday. 

He also added that the film was not screened in the city of Sardasht, because the selections from the Fajr festival are only being screened in the centers of the provinces.

The film, which was screened in the official section of the 38th Fajr Film Festival, tells the true story of Qader Mulanpur, a man who was away when his family was impacted by the chemical attack in a village near Sardasht. 

His efforts to save his pregnant wife and their three children are in vain, and they die one by one from the fatal wounds sustained as a result of the chemical attack.    

In 1987 Iraq bombarded the Iranian town of Sardasht and the surrounding region with chemical weapons, killing over 1000 and injuring over 8000 civilians, many of whom were permanently disabled.

Photo: Mehran Modiri (L) and Payman Maadi act in a scene from Mohammad-Hossein Mahdavian’s film “Walnut Tree”. 

RM/MMS/YAW