''Ravayat-e Fath'' ( fa, روایت فتح), variously translated as ''The Chronicles of Victory'', ''The Tales of Victory'', ''The Narrative of Victory'', ''The Narration of Victory'', ''The Story of Victory'', and ''Witness to Glory'', was a war documentary television series directed by

Morteza Avini Sayyid Morteza Avini ( fa, سید مرتضی آوینی; also spelled Aviny; 23 September 1947 – 9 April 1993) was an Iranian documentary filmmaker, author, and Theory, theoretician of "Islamic Cinema." He studied Architecture at Tehran Univers ...

and filmed on the front lines of the

Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations Security Council ...

of the 1980s. It is one of the most famous works of Avini, and one of the first and most important war documentary films in the history of

Iranian cinema The Cinema of Iran (Persian: سینمای ایران), also known as the Cinema of Persia, refers to the cinema and film industries in Iran which produce a variety of commercial films annually. Iranian art films have garnered international fame a ...

. The series presents witnessing discourse through footage of front-line sacrifices set against commentary by Avini. The documentary film "literally brought the details of war into people's living rooms every night". The series had a mystic and spiritual theme. After the Iraqi invasion of Iran, Avini went to the front-line, founded

Jihad Jihad (; ar, جهاد, jihād ) is an Arabic word which literally means "striving" or "struggling", especially with a praiseworthy aim. In an Islamic context, it can refer to almost any effort to make personal and social life conform with Go ...

TV Unit ( fa, گروه تلویزیونی جهاد), and trained its crewmembers ideologically and technically. At least seven Jihad TV crew members, including Avini himself, were killed in the process of making the series. Jihad TV continued to operate as a production unit for years after the war and after Avini. According to

Hamid Naficy Hamid Naficy ( fa, حمید نفیسی; born 1944) is an Iranian-born American filmmaker, writer, scholar, and educator. He is the Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor in Communication at Northwestern University in the department of Radio/Film/Te ...

, what made the documentary series stand out was "its promotion of multiple sacred subjectivities on behalf of the warriors who were filmed, the cameramen who filmed them, and the spectators who watched them".

Seasons

Season One, consisted of 11 episodes, is about

Operation Dawn 8 The First Battle of al-Faw was a battle of the Iran–Iraq War, fought on the al-Faw peninsula between 10 February and 10 March 1986. The Iranian operation is considered to be one of Iran's greatest achievements in the Iran–Iraq War. The Ir ...

(

First Battle of al-Faw The First Battle of al-Faw was a battle of the Iran–Iraq War, fought on the al-Faw peninsula between 10 February and 10 March 1986. The Iranian operation is considered to be one of Iran's greatest achievements in the Iran–Iraq War. The Ira ...

). Season Two depicts

Battle of Mehran In response to the loss of the strategic al-Faw Peninsula during the Iran–Iraq War, the Iraqis pushed into Iran to seize the strategic Iranian city of Mehran to trade for the strategically important territory. Saddam was able to seize the cit ...

and Operation Karbala 1. Season Three depicts

Operation Karbala 5 The siege of Basra, code-named Operation Karbala-5 ( fa, عملیات کربلای ۵ ) or The Great Harvest ( ar, الحصاد الاكبر), was an offensive operation carried out by Iran in an effort to capture the Iraqi port city of Basra i ...

, filmed in

Shalamcheh Shalamcheh ( fa, شَلَمچه) is a town located in Khuzestan Province, Iran. It is situated on the border with Iraq, north-west of Abadan. The town was one of the main sites of invasion of Saddam Hussein's Iraq in the Iran–Iraq War The ...

. Three crewmembers were killed in the process of filming this season. Season Four, beside covering the front-line events, depicts the political situation in 1987, including the American activities in the Persian Gulf and the Mecca incident. Season Five was broadcast after the end of the war, and depicts other wartime Iranian operations including Operation Karbala 10,

Operation Mersad Operation Forough Javidan ( fa, عملیات فروغ جاویدان, ''Operation Eternal Light'', MeK's codename) and Operation Mersad ( fa, عملیات مرصاد, ''Operation Ambush'', Iranian codename) were among the last major militar ...

, and several operations in the Western Front.

References

External links

Download links
Documentary television series about war Iran–Iraq War films Iranian television series

Seasons

References

Further reading

External links