Key Themes Political Use of War Photographs/Photographers: the Islamic Republic’s use of visual representations to steer public sentiments for mobilising volunteer combatants, forge Islamist ideologies and mask national trauma through martyrdom.Generational Perspectives: how do the postwar generations, especially those born after the war, view and experience these photographers differently than the Iranians who lived and contributed to the war.Censorship and Control: the Islamic Republic enforced censorship indirectly by sending ideologically motivated amateur photographs to the fronts. They chose to self-censor by turning away from the gore and giving an aesthetic layer to the war.The changed meaning of war photographs across time: some criticised photographs that served as propaganda and justified political violence, while the Iranian youth denounced the war photographs that have become war memorabilia, which are nowadays auctioned at the highest prices in the prestigious auction houses in Iran.
F/1.4 revisits the iconic photographs of the Iran-Iraq war, the longest protracted conventional war since WWII. Between 1980 and 1988, these photographs documented the war between Iran and Iraq, two of the largest Middle Eastern countries in the grip of authoritarian leadership. These photographs were more than documentation and news reportage. They were also propaganda instruments for the Islamic Republic to represent the war through an Islamic and ideologically informed lens. They depicted the fallen soldiers as martyrs of the Islamic Revolution following Ayatollah Khomeini. The photographs distorted the loss of lives and violence as the religiously accepted cost of sacrifice in the name of God. We held candid conversations, proposed challenging questions and probed state-sponsored Iranian war photographers whose photographs served as propaganda, chose to self-censor, were censored, or their photographs were manipulated by the state-sponsored news outlets. Nine war photographers and four Iranian experts spoke to our camera and combined 101 photographs with reflections and newsreels from the war era. Some expressed unwavering convictions in their choices, and some uttered regrets that the Islamic Republic misused their political emotions. The documentary, directed and produced in Iran, juxtaposes war photographs beside Iranian critical scholars and postwar generations who questioned the aesthetics that masked the horrors of the war.
Director : Seyed Saeid Mir Mohammadi
Producer: Younes Saramifar