TEHRAN -- Reza Borji, Iranian filmmaker and photographer who is mostly known for his works on regional crises around the world, was honored for his lifetime achievements during a ceremony at Tehran’s Resaneh Cultural Center on Tuesday evening.

“I am a photographer and a cameraman. Sometimes I write and sometimes I paint, but I am sure if I go back in time, I would still do the same things,” Borji said in his short speech at the ceremony attended by a number of cultural figures.

Borji was a colleague of Morteza Avini, the acclaimed documentarian who was martyred by a landmine in 1993 when he was making a documentary in the former Iran-Iraq war zone in southwestern Iran.

“All these 35 years, I did what I think everybody would have done if he had the honor of working with Morteza Avini,” Borji said.

“All these years, I took photos, made films, wrote and sometimes only cried since I could do nothing for those who were caught up in trouble. I saw and cried with a couple that had lost all three of their children and were crying on their graves,” Borji explained.

“I witnessed sixteen regional wars and went to Afghanistan 30 times,” he said, adding, “But I think my parents need to be honored since they lost their son 30 years ago in the [Iran-Iraq] war and the war still remains in our house since then.”

Art Bureau director Mohsen Momeni-Sharif who also attended the ceremony pointed to his 30 years of friendship with Borji and said, “He has many good characteristics, with sacrifice and sincerity on the top.”

He called individuals like Borji the ambassadors of the Islamic Revolution.

The ceremony ended with unveiling “Photographer of Peace”, Ahmad Masuminejad’s documentary on Borji that was produced by the Resaneh Cultural Center.

Borji began his career with making documentaries on the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. He also has a large archive of photos from the conflict. 

He is the director of “Seashores of Tears and Olives”, the 33-day resistance by the Lebanese against the Israeli attacks in 2006. 

His credits also include “Years of Bullets and Iris” and “Mothers of Srebrenica”, both on the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and “Garnet of Badakhshan” on the Afghan war. 

Borji has taken photos of the wars in Iraq, Karabakh, Kosovo and Chechnya as well as of the crises in Sudan, Somali, Kashmir and Ghana.

Photo: Reza Borji speaks during a ceremony organized by Tehran’s Resaneh Cultural Center to honor the war photographer for his lifetime achievements on September 26, 2017. (Mehr/Mohammad Moheimani) 

RM/MMS/YAW