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 United Nations report assessed that the amount of Afghan land used for opium is now larger than the corresponding total for coca cultivation in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia combined.
Gordon, a British director, interviews mothers in northern villages who use the drug to calm their crying, hungry babies. She also spends time with long-term addicts in Kabul who seek help from a poorly funded clinic there. One man, who suffered a face-altering gun-shot wound while working as a presidential security guard, started smoking opium when someone in the hospital room with him said it would take his pain away and help him sleep.
The full blog post, on Lucy Gordon’s documentary film, “This is My Destiny,” is at INTELLIGENT LIFE
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 rules against showing skin or wearing makeup in public, left me wondering whether any of them had picked up a newspaper in the last 30 years, let alone looked at a map to see where Afghanistan is.
The full blog post, on Liz Mermin’s documentary “The Beauty Academy of Kabul, is at INTELLIGENT LIFE
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 noticed that Afghans liked talking with them about movies. Images of the outside world – of other people’s ideas and ways of life – were exciting.
The full blog post, on London’s Afghanistan Film Festival, is at the NEW YORK TIMES
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. And Indian pop-culture is the most influential in Afghanistan; much more so than Western music. I see this as positive change. It’s helping to create a music industry in a country that until recently did not allow music at all. Now there are outlets. And I really do believe in the power of music; it’s a powerful medium for healing. Everyone in Afghanistan knows someone who has died recently, in horrible ways. [Music] is helping heal some of that, by giving them a break.
The full story on the documentary film “Afghan Star” and interview with director Havana Marking at INTELLIGENT LIFE
