"My Enemy, My Brother": Zahed and Najah's Story

Zahed and Najah were two boys that were in the Iran-Iraq war. Zahed was 13.5 years old when he joined the army and Najah was between 18 to 19 years old when the war started. Najah was from Iraq while Zahed was from Iran. During the battle of Khorramshahr, there were attacks to each bunker, and because of this attack, Najah was stuck in the bunker. Zahed came into Najah's bunker with a flashlight. When Zahed came in, he saw that in Najah's pocket, there was a holy book called the Quran. Inside the Quran was a photo of his girlfriend with his newly born son. This made Zahed change his mind to save Najah because he had a family waiting for him to come home from the war. So Zahed brought Najah to a military hospital, and Najah was saved. Three years before the war ended, Zahed gets taken.

In 1988, the war ended. Najah was not released out of the hospital till 1997. He comes to Vancouver, Canada to start a new life. On the other hand, Zahed heads to Vancouver as well and gets a job as a seaman. Zahed's friends tel him to go to VAST. On the same day, Najah drives his brother the same counselling center for an appointment. Najah sees an Iraqi man sitting, so Najah goes up to him. The Iraqi man says he is not Iraqian, but Iranian. Both of them figured out that they were in the same place together during the war. From that moment, they became like brothers, and now, Najah helped Zahed recover from the war.

My Enemy, My Brother is an example of living in a nonviolent way, because of what Zahed did. Even though they were considered enemies during the war, Zahed followed his concious to save Najah. Instead of killing Najah because they were enemies, Zahed saved Najah, and this is example of living in a nonviolent way. Zahed followed his heart to save Najah, and to this day, they are still good friends.

We believe that the filmmaker created this film to show us that even though two countries are fighting against each other, if you follow your concious, you can save a person's precious life. You should not always follow what your leader says. Sometimes in a life or death situation, even if you are enemies, you can save his or her life, and it can mean a lot to them in the future. Overall, this film was to show us that we should always follow our heart.