Amir Habibullah (1901-1919) introduced film to Afghanistan, but in the royal court only. In 1923-24, the first projector - "magic box" or "mageek lantan" (magic lantern) - showed the first silent film in Paghman to the public. The first Afghan film, "Love and Friendship (film)", was produced in 1946.[1]
In 1968, the Afghan Film Organization was built. When the Taliban took power in 1996 in Kabul, cinemas were attacked and many films were burnt.2000s
Since 2000, the cinema of Afghanistan has slowly started to emerge from a lengthy period of silence. Before the September 11th attacks, Afghanistan-based Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf attracted world attention to Afghanistan with his celebrated movie, Kandahar. It was an attempt to tell the world about a forgotten country. The film brought the cinema of Afghanistan to the Cannes film festival for the first time in history. Later Samira Makhmalbaf, Siddiq Barmak, Horace Shansab, Yassamin Maleknasr and Abolfazl Jalili made a significant contribution to Dari cinema in Afghanistan. Barmak's first Dari/Pashtu film Osama (2003) won several awards at film festivals in Cannes and London. Siddiq Barmak is also director of the Afghan Children Education Movement (ACEM), an association that promotes literacy, culture and the arts, founded by Iranian film director Mohsen Makhmalbaf. The school trains actors and directors for the emerging cinema of Afghanistan. In 2006 Afghanistan joined the Central Asian and Southern Caucasus Film Festivals Confederation.
The Secret of Zolykha (2007), (Zolykha's Secret-Rahze Zolykha in Dari) is also among the first feature films from post-Taliban Afghanistan. Lyrical and suffused with "Afghan magic realism", the film has played to full houses at major film festivals. The film's director, Horace Ahmad Shansab, trained young Afghan filmmakers and made the film entirely on location in Afghanistan.
Apart from Dari cinema, Pashto cinema is also flourishing in Afghanistan. Several Pashto language films have been made since the fall of the Taliban. Also several Pashto films have been made by foreigners like "Good Morning Afghanistan" (2003) by Camilla Nielsson.
In the 1970s and 1980s, it was not difficult to get women to act in films. The war and the Taliban rule changed the situation. Today women are increasingly represented in the cinema of Afghanistan. Talented actors like Amina Jafari, Saba Sahar and Marina Gulbahari have emerged over the last decade.[2]
Many documentaries have been made in Afghanistan since the Taliban, most notably 16 Days in Afghanistan by Mithaq Kazimi.
Reel Afghanistan:
The UK's First ever Afghan film festival launches in Edinburgh
Afghanistan may have become a byword for war and tragedy but the first ever Afghan Film Festival in the UK explores the rich cultural possibilities from a nation whose capital was once described as 'the light garden of the Angel king.'
In Spring 2008 Edinburgh will play host to Reel Afghanistan - the UK's first festival of Afghan Cinema and Culture. A myriad of events are taking place throughout the city, from performances by Afghan traditional musicians to Golden Globe award-winner Siddiq Barmak travelling from Kabul to present his film Osama.
Reel Afghanistan looks at a largely unknown and exciting area of Cinema. Accompanying the Film Festival will be music events, exhibitions, talks and master-classes at the Filmhouse and elsewhere.
Of course the war is unavoidably present, but whether it is Earth and Ashes exploring the beauty of the landscape, or Kabul Beauty Academy examining the physical beauty of the people, Reel Afghanistan looks at a largely unknown and exciting area of Cinema.
The Festival:
The festival will take place 21 February – 8 March 2008. It will be a celebration of Afghan culture and cultural exchange. The programme will include film screenings, talks and master classes by filmmakers, as well as musical events and exhibitions by local and international artists. This will be the first-ever Afghan film and cultural festival in the UK.
Highlights:
Award-winning filmmaker Siddiq Barmak is travelling from Kabul to present his Golden Globe winning film Osama.
Award-winning filmmaker and author Atiq Rahimi will present his film Earth and Ashes and taking part in a master-class on Afghan Cinema with director Siddiq Barmak at the Scottish Documentary Institute. This will be a unique occasion to meet and discuss cinematic practices with two of the countries top directors.
Cult director Richard Stanley is introducing his early film Voice of the Moon, capturing Afghanistan in the late 1980's when he absconded from a UNICEF mission to travel and film with the Mujahedeen. He is also hosting a talk in the Scottish Documentary Institute.
Award-winning Director Phil Grabsky is presenting his beautiful documentary, The Boy who plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan, detailing some of the lives of the 250 refugee families living in the caves surrounding the Taliban-destroyed buddhas. |
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Acclaimed musicians Kharabat are coming directly from Kabul to perform Afghan traditional music alongside UK based Afghan artists including Yusuf Mahmoud (who has played internationally with artists such as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan) in the Queen's Hall and the Reid Concert Hall.
A number of photographers will exhibit thoughout Edinburgh including Ivan Sigal (Internews), Aliki Sapountzi, Richard Stanley and Immo Horn.
The Reel Afghanistan Festival is sponsored by
- British Council
- Filmhouse
- Scottish Documentary Institute.
- Afghan Schools Trust
- Edinburgh University Settlement
- Firefly International
- Pixelapes.
From persecution to adulation, the new face of Afghan cinema
By Nick Meo in Kabul
Monday, 29 November 2004
Two years ago, Marina Gulbahari was a street urchin begging for scraps from the tables of Kabul restaurants. If she was lucky, she might get a few crumpled notes or kebab leftovers wrapped in nan. If she was unlucky, the black-turbaned Taliban police would beat her. That was before she became the biggest name in Afghan cinema.
Two years ago, Marina Gulbahari was a street urchin begging for scraps from the tables of Kabul restaurants. If she was lucky, she might get a few crumpled notes or kebab leftovers wrapped in nan. If she was unlucky, the black-turbaned Taliban police would beat her. That was before she became the biggest name in Afghan cinema.
Now, after a stunning performance in last year's critically acclaimed film Osama , Marina, aged 14, has become the face of Afghanistan's resurgent film industry at foreign film festivals, hailed as a precociously talented actress with an exciting future whose natural ability is drawn from her traumatic upbringing amid war and turmoil.
Her emergence is the most extraordinary story of Kabul's film-making renaissance. From being persecuted by the Taliban, who burnt all the film stock they could, directors are again making movies. A new generation desperately short of cash and equipment but not of enthusiasm is buzzing with projects and ideas, determined to create a uniquely Afghan creative film genre.
The young directors and producers hang about in the shrapnel-damaged Afghan Film building, where Marina's awards take pride of place on display in the foyer beside awards from Soviet and North Korean film festivals and a 1968 award for a documentary on nomads. Projects include a civil war drama about a man's search for his brother through Afghanistan's hellish coal mines to tell him that the rest of the family has been died in fighting, a black comedy about opium smuggling with an anti-drugs message and Bollywood-style dance routines, and a remake of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment set in Kabul.
Osama is about a girl's attempts to survive the fundamentalist madness of the Taliban by pretending to be a boy so she can earn money for her family. Marina's sweetly innocent face has become so well known in Kabul that she can no longer venture on the street without being mobbed.
"I like being famous," she says with a giggle. "It is much better than being a beggar. That was a very shameful time for me."
For Marina, her fairy-tale came true when she begged for food at the table of Siddiq Barmak, a famous director who has for years made highly praised films on war-damaged sets with antiquated Soviet equipment.
He was trying to find a child to cast in his film and was struck by the beggar girl's charisma. With no drama training, she proved a natural, drawing on her own painful experiences. Two of her older sisters had been killed in a rocket attack, then, as her family sank into desperate poverty, she was forced to endure the humiliation of begging in the streets.
The only film she had ever seen was Titanic, an unlikely bootleg video hit which captured the imagination of Afghans. "I liked the sinking scene," Marina says. Like other Afghans, she saw the parallels with her own country's fate under the Taliban.
"Osama was a great film," she says. "I am so happy I was part of it. It told the world the truth about the Taliban. Now I want to be Afghanistan's best actress, then Afghanistan's most famous director. Anything is possible for women now."
Her film career has enabled her to buy a modest house for her parents - her father sells Bollywood music tapes on the street - and nine brothers and sisters. It has also allowed her to swap her rags for nice clothes and pay for the education she missed because the Taliban banned her from school.
The downside is a fear of Taliban revenge. "I worry about them seeing me in the street and killing me. They may recognise me from the film."
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