TEHRAN – Ensieh Shah-Hosseini, director of the acclaimed Iranian movie “Good Night Commander”, has announced her plan to make “Don’t Shoot at Children” about the fall of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and its aftermath.

The project received the approval of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance in 2015, however, it was not made at that time due to some financial issues facing producer Seyyed Amir Seyyedzadeh, Shah-Hosseini said on Thursday.

“Everything is OK now and shooting will start in the near future,” she added,

The film will be shot in the Arabic language with an all-Iraqi cast.

Shah-Hosseini directed “Good Night Commander” in 2006 about a correspondent on the front during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

The film describes the terrors of war as seen through the eyes of a timid reporter who manages to overcome her thoughts of suicide on the battlefield. This drama, conceived as harsh “psychotherapy”, tells of the beautiful Maryam who, after her unsuccessful marriage, thinks of committing suicide in a way that would at least be of some benefit to others. She thus enters the Iran-Iraq war as a reporter. Her time spent in the devastated desert landscape, armies spilling over from one side to the other depending on which has the upper hand, totally changes her vision of the world. She is surrounded by suffering and pain, even in the village where she goes to find shelter after her unit is massacred. A wedding in the village ends in tragedy. The close of the film again finds Maryam at the front, where she comes across her friend, the commander Beshar.

“I am following my beliefs in filmmaking and speaking, and I’m talking about them in the form of films,” Shah-Hosseini said.

“The story of ‘Don’t Shoot at Children’ is different from the other films I’ve made and I hope people will like it,” she added.

She pointed to the long hiatus in her filmmaking career and added, “I have not made any films for a long time, but I was able to study more and this is of greater importance.” 

Seyyedzadeh has also said that he would do his best to complete the film before February 2021 to participate in the Fajr Film Festival.

Photo: Iranian director Ensieh Shah-Hosseini in an undated photo. (Mehr/Majid Asgaripur)

MMS/YAW