AMIN AGHAEI

Lacunar Amnesia is a kind of amnesia where a chunk of time in the memory drops and other parts may operate just fine. One specific event may be forgotten, never to be found anywhere in memory. This kind of amnesia is called lacunar after the gap in memory, caused by damage in the limbic system which is responsible for our memories and emotions.
There happened an 8-year-long war in my country during which parts of Iran were occupied for a time; as if those parts turned into lacunas. And Khorramshahr, the city my family lived in has been one of these lacunar spots.
The idea of this video emerged when my parents told their memories of their childhood, adolescence, marriage, etc. I have no pictures from before the war while my coevals have so many. Khorramshahr was occupied by Iraqi army for 576 days. My mother was about 23 and my father 25 at that time. After the liberation my father went back there and found a single photo out of the rubbles of our house. That photo is the only remnant of their marriage and the only bridge between me and my parents’ past. Now everything dwells in their memory. It’s as if the people of Khorramshahr have reserved the city in their minds and when any of them dies, a part of the memory of the city perishes.
Some countries started development by documenting and inscribing their past while other nations, out of instability, are bound to repeat the same route again and again simply because they somehow manage to forget parts of their past.