Shot by Bahareh Hosseini, the film gets right up close to men, women and children as they smoke, inject and eat the drug, and Hosseini’s camera doesn’t flinch when these addicts run out of opium and reveal their desperation. While opium addiction in poppy-filled Afghanistan is not new news, current statistics are staggering. A...
The American hairdressers add a slightly bizarre twist to this film. It is hard not to be startled by some of their remarks as they grapple with just how different life is for Afghan women. Their slightly judgmental, dumbfounded reactions to local rites and mores, such as arranged marriages, bans on pre-marital intimacy and...
The rationale behind an upcoming Afghanistan film festival in London came about during a trip to Afghanistan in November of 2006. Zahra Qadir and her friend Dan Gorman were there working on a short film called “Circus for Life,” about a therapeutic circus for children in Kabul. While making their documentary, the two filmmakers...
Intelligent Life: It’s pretty incredible that the reality-TV, “Pop Idol” culture of the West has reached Afghanistan, of all places. Do you see this as a positive thing? Havana Marking: The idea of the talent contest is nothing new. And it works well in a television format. India has its own pop idol show....