‘The 23’ creates group hero: Director to ifilm

In an exclusive report, Mahdi Jafari tells ifilm that ‘The 23’ has been after creating a group hero.

The director of this award-winning war-themed movie had made a documentary on the 23 teenage heroes before. However, to him, the doc was not sufficient in showing the grandeur of what these war veterans did. It was then that he decided to make another narrative movie which according to him around 80 percent of it is based on reality.

ifilm exclusive report on ‘The 23’

On how honest his attempt has been he says, “I tried to show the audience the realities of the war as far as I could”.

Jafari goes on to say that he had heard people asking why he did not show details of each and every one of the characters. He said that it was intentionally done and they wanted to create a group hero.

’The 23’ is set at the Iraq-Iran war time. It depicts the cavalry of 23 young adult Iranians who did not give in to the cruel enemy who did not grant them their freedom.

The gravity of their selflessness for their country has been the reason for a number of authors and filmmakers to develop projects about them.

In 1983, a group of teenage soldiers who had enrolled to defend their homeland got arrested by Iraqi army. Attempting to show how youngsters were unwillingly sent to the war, Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi president of the time, put on a show and masqueraded as a defender of people’s rights giving the 23 flowers and promising them to be freed soon.

His plans went in vein as the heroes of our story went on a hunger strike which cost them eight years of incarceration.

AA/MM