.jpg "Bahram Radan acts in a scene from “The Story of Love”.")
TEHRAN -- Iranian Kurdish director Ahmad Ramezanzadeh’s debut film, “The Story of Love”, tells a tale of love set in the aftermath of the Iraqi chemical weapons attack on the Kurdish city of Halabja in 1988.
The film is competing in the New Vision section, which screens works from first-time filmmakers, at the 33rd Fajr Film Festival that is underway in the Tehran.
The movie is based on a real-life story about an Iranian photographer who arrived in Halabja a few hours after the chemical weapons attack. He met a woman while he was trying to help the victims of the attack.
“I was born in Kurdistan,” Ramezanzadeh said in a review session held after the screening of the film on Monday.
“I have had the tragedy of Halabja in mind for years. I began writing the screenplay for the film in 2009 and spent three years making the film,” he said.
“The people of Halabja took refuge across the borders in Iran despite the fact that they had Iraqi nationality. Our people warmly welcomed them. This humanitarian issue is worthy of being highlighted in a movie,” he added.
The film’s stars Bahram Radan and Kurdish actress Shilan Rahmani also attended the review session, which was held at Milad Tower.
Radan said that the film gave him the opportunity to appear once again in a movie on the theme of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.
He previously played the role of a war veteran in director Rakhshan Bani-Etemad’s “Gilaneh”.
Rahmani said, “The Halabja tragedy was really awful. I wanted to have a role in this film and it was so.”
MMS/YAW
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