'Two Enemies, One Heart' is an amazing account of how two opposing soldiers met on the battlefield during the Iran-Iraq war, when one saved the other's life. Nearly 20 years later, after both men's lives had been changed forever by the fallout of the war, they were reunited on the other side of the world. The State We're In's Mignon Aylen tells the story of the seven-month production process.

When I read an article about Zahed and Naja's story, I just knew that I had to produce it. So I called up the author, Vancouver writer Timothy Taylor, and got Zahed's telephone number. Here in the Netherlands we’re 9 hours ahead of Vancouver, so late one Tuesday evening, I dialed the number, and Zahed answered! But I reached a kind of impasse – he doesn’t speak much English and I don’t speak any Persian.

So I then called the torture survivor centre in Vancouver (VAST). A friendly woman named Eidy answered the phone, and I explained to her that I needed someone to help me contact both men. As I recited the story to her, she kept saying “Uh huh. Yes. Yes! I know this story!”

Luck

As luck would have it, Eidy had been there in the waiting room when Zahed and Naja had their intense reunion, and she was now working at the centre. My frequent calls to Eidy would go something like this: ''Hi Eidy. It's Mignon. Any news?'' Variations on this went on for months! Eventually, with Eidy's help, I was able to explain to both Zahed and Naja that we wanted to tell their story.

I contacted CBC Vancouver to arrange a studio and then co-ordinate with Zahed and Naja – as well as their interpreters. Four people, four different schedules – actually six different schedules if you include the studios at CBC and RNW. Finally, the day of the long-awaited recording came. But we had enormous technical problems making the two studios “talk” to each other.

Recording an epic

Nearly an hour after we were supposed to begin, we started talking with Zahed. But there was another problem: his story was so good! We were going to run out of studio time before we could finish recording their epic. So I called CBC during the interview and begged them to rearrange their studio bookings so we could continue. They kindly gave us the green light. Three-and-a-half hours later, we had the story and everyone was exhausted!

Technical glitch

Now my work really began. I sent the audio file to Arabic and Persian translators for further transcription. With a story like this you don't want to miss anything. I began cutting to get 3.5 hours of audio down to about 30 minutes. But one month before air time, another technical glitch. I’d lost weeks of editing work I’d done and had to start over.
 
But the ups and downs of a project like this are worth it. It took seven months to get the story finished, and I’m proud to say we’ve had overwhelming responses to it. I’m deeply grateful to Zahed and Naja for graciously allowing The State We're In to share their story with the world.

You can listen to 'Two Enemies, One Heart' here.