“Memories for All Seasons” was screened at the second theater in NTT CRED Hall on Saturday, November 25th at 16:00.
This documentary film featured the poison gas victims in the Iran-Iraq war, who were treated by the Australian doctors.
After the screening, the Talk Show was held with the leading figure in Iranian film industry, Director Mostafa Razzaq-Karimi, and the president of NPO “MOCT”, Shizuko Tsudani. They showed up on the stage with a round of applause. Ms. Yoko Tamada, a free personality, served as an interviewer.
This is the fourth visit to Japan and the second visit to Hiroshima for Director Razzaq-Karimi, and he gave us a message; “I am thrilled to come to the Hiroshima International Film Festival. I was invited to Tokyo 7 years ago, but this time I feel even happier. I would like to know how the audience feels about my film. For me, the image of Hiroshima is the A-bomb, but now I am glad to know that this city has been fully reborn into a wonderful city.”
Ms. Shizuko Tsudani said, “This is the fourth screening in Japan. Now that usage of the poison gas sounds like an old story. At that time, broadcasting the news regarding poison gas was forbidden, and it was not until quite recently that we came to know it. This is a wonderful film.” From her comment, we could feel her strong will to prevent it from fading away.
Director Razzaq-Karimi said, “Iranian people respect Japanese people. Japanese know pain and sadness after the A-bomb dropping. In Europe, there are many untold stories about the war as the survivors are getting old. I would like as many people as possible to watch this film for world peace.”
A young man in the audience asked, “What happened in this film is similar to what happened in Hiroshima. In the film, there was an expression ‘A fact which is seen through a glass wall’. Could you tell us the importance or difficulties of conveying the message?” The Director answered, “A glass wall implies a TV. We can’t see the real fact as long as we receive information from TV. A majority of people don’t know that our tribe has suffered. I will continue to tell the fact through a different type of ‘glass wall’ of my own.”
At the end of the talk show, Ms. Shizuko Tsudani said, “The Iranian films are deep, attractive, and full of power to live.” We could feel a strong earnestness towards the Iranian films through this talk show.