Towards the end of 2007, when our fears of a military conflict between the U.S. and Iran were at their peak, Make Films Not War resolved to use images and stories to continue building a cultural bridge between our two societies, even as our governments ratcheted up their language of war.
We made contact with award-winning Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi (HALF MOON, TURTLES CAN FLY, A TIME FOR DRUNKEN HORSES), and discussed how best to go about this. We decided to commission five up-and-coming Iranian filmmakers, two of them as young as 10 and 13, to produce a series of short videos on the themes of war and peace. Ghobadi’s company, Tehran based MIJ Productions, co-produced.
