Kolkata: When war broke out in Iran, Mohammadreza Azadi was in Kolkata, nearly 3,850 km from his home in Tehran. The Iranian teacher-turned-filmmaker came to the city for DocEdgeKolkata, an international incubation and pitching forum, where he was presenting his second feature documentary. But as news arrived of his country under attack, the days threatened to become unbearable. What sustained him, he said, was the “solidarity, empathy, and kindness” of his Indian friends. Before leaving Kolkata on Tuesday, he spoke to TOI. Azadi said DocEdge is “well known in Iran” and a “good step” for “presenting documentary films”. “The feedback and comments I received about my presence were very encouraging. From mentors to participants, everyone considered this insane act of attack and aggression against Iran unacceptable,” Azadi said.The war began one hour after he arrived in Kolkata. “Alone in this city, I struggled to speak with my loved ones back home while following the news of multiple strikes. My full focus was on Iran, on the lives of people who were being bombed every day. The distance made everything more bitter. I felt I should be in Tehran, like during the Israeli attack nine months earlier, doing something — but instead I had to sit in the calm and elegant classrooms. Inside my mind, there was a storm of stress and even shame,” he added.His family, for now, remains safe. But safety, he suggested, is fragile at a time like this. “Physically, my family is fine — for now. But the psychological effects of this attack touch every life. My larger family, are under aimless bombardment, and every day people are killed in hospitals, streets, homes, and even schools,” he said. Asked what fear means to him now, Azadi said, “We are facing an attack from Israel and the United States, and in a situation of war there is no place for fear — only for defence and resistance.““On the day I arrived in Kolkata, the US bombed a school and killed 167 students. I am a teacher, this news was heartbreaking for me. If it were not for the kindness of my Indian friends, staying in Kolkata would have been impossible,” he said.
