TEHRAN – Iranian filmmaker Mehdi Naqavian has made a documentary named “As a Soldier” that presents Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei’s accounts of the first year of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

“The reason I made this film is that there are few documentaries providing information about the war in its beginning year,” Naqavian said in a press release on Saturday.

“In addition, the information has been extracted from the Leader’s memories of the war, and this makes the documentary unique and more compelling,” he added.

“This film is based on the Leader’s accounts of the war and it makes the job more sensitive, because the film should not create an improper perception of the event,” the filmmaker noted.

Naqavian has used archival footage from Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting and several other organizations to make “As a Soldier”.

The film is scheduled to be screened at the 14th edition of Cinéma Vérité, Iran’s major international festival for documentary films, which will be organized totally online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Naqavian said that due to the limitations the pandemic has imposed on documentarians, there has a trend toward making documentaries with archival footages.

He said that such films have always been treated with utter contempt by the juries and organizers of festivals in the country. 

“Meanwhile, many amazing documentaries are made across the world based archival recordings,” he added.

Naqavian criticized Iranian filmmakers for their paucity of regard for historical documentaries, and added, “Meanwhile, the Iranian opposition media working abroad are immensely active and instills biased ideas about contemporary Iranian history in people.”

The 14th Cinéma Vérité festival will be organized in Tehran from December 15 to 22.

A lineup of documentaries acclaimed at 2020 international events across the world will be screened in the World’s Best section.

Among the films are “Rockfield by Hannah Berryman from England, “Tony Driver” by Ascanio Petrini from Italy, “Two Roads” by Radovan Sibrt from Czech and “Acasa, My Home” by Radu Ciorniciuc from Romania.

In addition, the Russia and Qatar co-production “Froth” and Dutch documentary “Punks” will be reviewed in this category.

Photo: A poster for “As a Soldier” by Iranian filmmaker Mehdi Naqavian.

MMS/YAW