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Afghan Film Festival · 2009

Afghan Film Festival 2009

Films Showing

Programme

14 films · 8 reviews

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Afghan Star

Review preview for Afghan Star

Although not breaking new ground in terms of the way it is shot and edited, this is a compelling story and features some excellent archive footage.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Four hopefuls compete to become pop idols in post-Taliban Afghanistan.

(Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Havana Marking) , Official site

Full review

The Boy Who Plays On The Buddhas Of Bamiyan

Review preview for The Boy Who Plays On The Buddhas Of Bamiyan

Alien subjects do require human angles to connect with viewers, and this film manages it well.

James Benefield · 3.5 out of 5
An optimistic documentary following a refugee family who live in a cave besides the ruins of the giant Buddha statues blown up by the Taliban.

(Country: UK; Year: 2004; Director: Phil Grabsky) , Official site , Trailer

Full review

Beauty Academy (The Beauty Academy of Kabul)

This documentary follows a group of women from America - some of them ethnically Afghan - visiting post-Taliban Afghanistan to set up a beauty salon with women who risked their lives to maintain one illegally before them.

(Country: US; Year: 2004; Director: Liz Mermin)

Buddha Collapsed Out Of Shame (Buda as sharm foru rikht)

Review preview for Buddha Collapsed Out Of Shame

Although this film has got a very serious point to make, Hana Makhalbaf has an enviable lightness of touch and always remembers to keep the story front and centre.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A little girl's attempt to go to school reveals the plight of many in modern Afghanistan.

(Country: Iran; Year: 2007; Director: Hana Makhmalbaf; Writer: Marzieh Makhmalbaf; Stars: Nikbakht Noruz, Abbas Alijome, Abdolali Hoseinali) , Official site

Full review

Cabal In Kabul (Cabale à Kaboul)

Review preview for Cabal In Kabul

It’s hard to tell whether the subjects’ playful bickering is either toned down or accentuated for our sake.

James Benefield · 2 out of 5
A documentary about life in Afghanistan.

(Country: Belgium; Year: 2006; Director: Dan Alexe; Stars: Isaac Lévy, Zabulon Simantov)

Full review

Earth And Ashes (Khakestar-o-khak)

After his family is killed in a bomb attack, an elderly man and his now deaf grandson walk the long miles to the coal mine where his son works to tell him what has happened.

(Country: Afghanistan, France; Year: 2004; Director: Atiq Rahimi; Writer: Kambuzia Partovi, based on the book by Atiq Rahimi.; Stars: Abdul Ghani, Jawan Mard Homayoun)

In This World

Review preview for In This World

If you have ever been lost in a foreign land, you may recognise the feeling of fear and isolation.

Angus Wolfe Murray · 4 out of 5
Docudramatic journey of two Afghan refugees from the Pakistan border to London.

(Country: UK; Year: 2002; Director: Michael Winterbottom; Writer: Tony Grisoni; Stars: Jamal Udin Torabi, Enayatullah, Imran Paracha, Hiddayatullah, Jamau)

Full review

Joy Of Madness

Review preview for Joy Of Madness

It provides some compelling insights into the fear and distrust still prevalent in post-Taliban Afghanistan.

David Haviland · 1.5 out of 5
Fourteen-year-old Iranian girl shoots a documentary about the making of a film in Afghanistan.

(Country: Iran; Year: 2003; Director: Hana Makhmalbaf; Writer: Hana Makhmalbaf)

Full review

Kabuli Kid

Review preview for Kabuli Kid

Both a straight forward narrative and a metaphor for a country whose future is as easily damaged as the abandoned child.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A Kabul taxi driver finds himself looking after an abandoned baby.

(Country: France, Afghanistan; Year: 2008; Director: Barmak Akram; Writer: Barmak Akram; Stars: Hadji Gul, Valéry Schatz, Amélie Glenn, Mohammad Chafi Sahel, Helena Alam, Messi Gul, Saleha Khan Gul, Rohina Gul, Mariam Hakimi, Mustafa Haidari)

Full review

Kandahar (Safar E Ghandehar)

Review preview for Kandahar

This is a film that sidesteps convention. There is no ending, no beginning. There is the journey.

Angus Wolfe Murray · 4 out of 5
A woman returns to Afghanistan to save her suicidal sister.

(Country: Iran; Year: 2001; Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaf; Writer: Mohsen Makhmalbaf; Stars: Niloufar Pazira, Hassan Tantai, Sadou Teymouri, Hayatala Hakimi)

Full review

Opium War

Wounded and lost in the Afghan desert, two US soldiers fear for their lives until they are adopted by a community of locals living in an abandoned tank.

(Country: South Korea, Afghanistan; Year: 2008; Director: Siddiq Barmak; Writer: Siddiq Barmak; Stars: Peter Bussian, Joe Suba, Fawad Samani, Jawanmard Paiez, Marina Golbahari, Hamid Hozouri)

Osama

With no surviving male relatives in a country where, thanks to the Taliban, a woman may not leave the house without a man to escort her, a teenage girl is forced to disguise herself as a boy in order to support her family.

(Country: Afghanistan, Netherlands, Japan, Ireland, Iran; Year: 2003; Director: Siddiq Barmak; Writer: Siddiq Barmak; Stars: Marina Golbahari, Arif Herati, Zubaida Sahar, Mohamad Nader Khadjeh, Mohamad Haref Harati) , Official site

Stray Dogs (Sag-haye Velgard)

Two orphaned children struggle to cope with life in Afghanistan after the Taliban.

(Country: Iran, France; Year: 2004; Director: Marzieh Makhmalbaf; Writer: Marzieh Makhmalbaf; Stars: Gol-Ghotai, Zahed, Agheleh Rezaie, Sohrab Akbari, Jamil Ghanazideh, Agheleh Shamsollah, Razeddin Sayyar, Maydeh Gol)

Voice Of The Moon (Afghan Voices)

A documentary cataloguing the Russian invasion of Afghanistan.

(Country: UK, Afghanistan; Director: Richard Stanley)