Directed by Andrzej B. Czulda, Persian Salvation tells the story of Polish children who found themselves on the Soviet territory following the USSR’s aggression against Poland on 17 September 1939. In 1942, they reached Iran together with General Władysław Anders’s troops.
The filmmakers interviewed twelve Poles who came to Iran as children along with the Polish army. Between April and August 1942, a total of 116,000 Poles were evacuated to Iran, including twenty thousand children. Out of this number, almost three thousand people died and were buried in that country.
Persian Salvation was shot in Poland and Iran, where the MFA and the Polish Embassy in Teheran had co-organized celebrations to mark the 70th anniversary of the evacuation of Poles from the USSR to Iran.
“The filming in Iran ran very smoothly. Although it was autumn when we worked there, the weather was fine and the Iranians proved very cordial, friendly and obliging,” remembers film director Andrzej B. Czulda. “We did the shooting in Teheran, Pahlevi (where the ships with Polish refugees would arrive; today the city is known as Bandar e-Anzali), and Isfahan, which between 1942 and 1945 was home to major Polish children’s centres. We also attended events marking the 70th anniversary of the arrival of General Anders’s army in Iran, which were held at the Dulab Polish Cemetery in Isfahan and Bandar e-Anzali. We met there Iranians who could still remember Poles from those days,” adds Czulda.
The Polish Embassy provided the filmmakers with logistic support by facilitating the transport of different recordings to and from Iran, a task which can be risky in Iran. In October 2012, Polish diplomats also helped the crew take part in events marking the 70th anniversary of the evacuation of Poles from the USSR to Iran. The documentary had its Polish premiere in Lodz this spring. The Warsaw audience will have an opportunity to watch Persian Salvation during an open screening which will be staged at the History Meeting House, 20 Karowa street, on 17 September at 6.00 p.m.
The film will be presented to the Iranian audience for the first time at the Fajr International Film Festival in Tehran in 2014. It is available in three language versions (Polish, English and Persian).
Photo © Polish Salvation. Robert A. Czulda
Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs