While working in Iran as a still photographer, Irvin Kershner one day got a call from the American embassy who said "Can you send a cameraman with a little film down to Abadan, there's a locust plague that's coming across from Arabia and its eating up everything. I want some film to show this.". So Kershner took his still tripod, contacts, a Kodak Cine Special 16mm Camera, 400ft of color film, and was put on a plane to Abadan just when they threw out the British from the oil companies. Kershner was left stuck in Abadan, it was a mess as mobs where running through the streets, machine guns could be heard in the distance, and there was a terrible heat to go with it all. One night, Kershner and a British cameraman stole a jeep and drove out, following the pipe line as they went looking for where the locusts were. After 3 days, Kershner and the cameraman found them and filmed them. It was the first film that Kershner ever shot.
At the time when Irvin Kershner went to Abadan, it was where the war was going on between Iran and Iraq.
When Irvin Kershner was asked if he wanted to go Iran to shoot documentaries in Farsi for the Iranian people, seeing it as a real opportunity to practice, he immediately enlisted and started working as a still photographer in Iran.
Upon finding where the locusts were, Irvin Kershner also found huge poppy fields, whole valleys of poppies, that were being grown for opium.