TEHRAN -- Iran’s Visual Media Institute released a collection of films produced on the theme of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, known as Sacred Defense in Iran, during a ceremony on Saturday.
The package named “Resistance Cinema” contains five DVDs, three of which carries thirty films produced over the past 30 years, and the other two contain a number of short films about the war, Visual Media Institute Managing Director Hossein Mosafer-Astaneh said during the ceremony.
All the films have Persian, Arabic and English subtitles, he noted.
“A group of cineastes such as filmmakers Jamal Shurjeh and Kamal Tabrizi selected the films for release,” he added.
“The package was due to be released earlier during the 13th Resistance International Film Festival, however the preparation of the films and the process of scanning took longer than we anticipated,” he said.
Mosafer-Astaneh continued that the Farabi Cinema Foundation had been a great help in preparing the package, expressing his thanks to the Art Bureau’s Visual Arts Center as well.
He also mentioned that they have plans to release a package of documentaries produced on Sacred Defense in the future.
Director of the Cinema Organization of Iran Hojjatollah Ayyubi, also attending the conference, stressed that dispersed ideas and efforts need to be reunited to focus on Sacred Defense and help portray the sacrifices made by the Iranian soldiers.
He said that Iran’s cinema is indebted to the cinema of Sacred Defense, and hoped that those who make these types of movies will have the opportunity to experience the beautiful and sacred feelings of those years.
“The world is interested in watching Iranian productions on Sacred Defense. They want to know how Iranians carried out resistance against the enemy and these cultural products will help,” he concluded.
“Gilaneh” directed by Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, “The Glass Agency” by Ebrahim Hatamikia, “Kissing the Moon-Like Face” by Homayun Asadian, and “The Night Bus” by Kiumars Purahmad are among the films in the collection.
Also included are Bahram Beizaii’s acclaimed movie “Bashu, the Little Stranger” and “Journey to Chazzabeh”, a film directed by Rasul Mollaqolipur.
RM/YAW
END