TEHRAN – Iran’s Health Ministry and the organizers of the Resistance International Film Festival have inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to honor films on health workers this year.

The MOU was signed between director of the festival Mehdi Azimi Mirabadi and Health Ministry’s Public Relations Office director Kianush Jahanpur, the organizers of the festival announced in a press release published on Saturday.
 
Jahanpur said that the ministry has asked over 60 universities of medical sciences for more collaboration in producing films on health workers, while the Red Crescent Society and the Tehran Municipality have also been invited to cooperate on this issue.

“The issue of coronavirus is an international concern and we are hoping the festival can make better use of world potentials like the World Health Organization,” he said.

Azimi Mirabadi also said that the organizers have allocated a special section to films on health workers this year.

“The spread of coronavirus in the country, and the strenuous efforts made by healthcare staff in battling with COVID-19 and serving people with the virus in the hospitals made us dedicate a new section to the festival,” he said.

The organizers have asked filmmakers and artists around the world to submit their short, documentary and animation films, music videos and motion graphics before the deadline of August 20.

The category named “Health Defenders” has been established in honor of the medical workers on the front line of the campaign against COVID-19.

An exhibition of photos and posters on the medical workers will be also organized on the sidelines of the festival, which will take place in Tehran from September 21 to 27.

The festival is organized every year to commemorate the anniversary of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

Photo: Director of the Resistance International Film Festival Mehdi Azimi Mirabadi (L) and Health Ministry’s Public Relations Office director Kianush Jahanpur exchange documents after signing an MOU to honor films on health workers.

RM/MMS/YAW