InterviewIranian director in Korea calls for peace as war claims innocent lives

Filmmaker Komeil Soheili / Courtesy of filmmaker

Komeil Soheili, an Iranian-born filmmaker residing in Korea, said the international community must stand against the justification of war as a basic principle of humanity regardless of political interests or the complex web of international power dynamics.

The director emphasized that the lives of civilians should never be sacrificed for political gains and called for a deeper global understanding of the humanitarian crisis currently occurring in his motherland.

"Enemy of my enemy won't be my friend necessarily," Soheili told The Korea Times on Wednesday. "We are against dictatorship and we are against war, and for me, there is no boundary where killing innocent children is acceptable for one side while it is not for the other."

The filmmaker is currently watching the unfolding tragedy of his homeland from Korea. On Feb. 28, the U.S. and Israel launched a wave of airstrikes against Iran. Although the strikes led to the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the military operations have continued, leaving the nation in a state of chaos and communication blackouts.

Soheili is a naturalized Korean citizen who built a life here with his wife and fellow filmmaker Jooyoung Soheili. The couple recently gained critical acclaim for their documentary "As the Bell Rings," which focuses on the ecological destruction of Mount Gariwang in Korea. The 80-minute film won the Grand Prize in the Korean Competition at the 2025 Seoul International Eco Film Festival.

Despite his deep roots in Korea, the filmmaker remains closely connected to Iran, where his parents and siblings still reside. He recalled the moment the latest conflict began when his brother made a frantic video call to him before the internet went down.

"My brother told me that the internet might shut down again and told me not to worry because they had enough food and water," he said. "We talked for about two hours at the beginning of the war and we keep checking the news together because we don't know about the future."

Shared pain of Korea, Iran

He described his current emotional state as a form of “han,” a Korean term of deep and collective sorrow. The filmmaker said that Iranians are now experiencing a very deep sorrow and a collective sadness because the bombs are not just hitting military targets but the whole civilization.

The filmmaker said his identity is inseparable from his birthplace. As Iran is part of his everyday life, he is currently working on two new documentaries that were shot there. He also mentioned that his children speak Persian as a native language to preserve their heritage.

"The real bombs are dropping on a real land and killing real people," Soheili said. "This is very straightforward and we should not forget that civilian lives are my red line."

Soheili also compared the current situation in Iran to the 1980 Gwangju Uprising where hundreds of people were killed by the military regime while fighting for democracy. He said that tens of thousands of people in Iran have lost their lives in the struggle that mirrors the long history of democratic movements in Korea.

"The Iranian government does not care about us and Israel and the current powers in the West do not care about Iranian people," he said. "I believe that after 100 years of fighting for freedom, Iranians can reach the democracy they deserve if we have the help of the international community to be our voice."

As a filmmaker who has covered refugee crises in Turkey, Syria and Yemen, he expressed a profound sense of responsibility to record the truth. He said he hopes Koreans will stand on the right side of history by understanding the democratic movements of the Iranian people.

"War is not a new thing for me as a filmmaker, but when it comes closer to you, it is an awful experience that I hope no one else has to go through," he said.