Godiparan (The Kite) - Razi Mohabi 2003

 

2004 SELECTION

SHORT FILMS

Sâya (The Shadow) - Nacir Al'Qas - 1990
Qorbani (The Sacrifice) - Homayoun Paeez - 2002
Kabul nendari (Kabul cinema) - Mirveis Rekab - 2002
Alam Nashresh (First Writings) - Moosa Zakizade - 2003
Godiparan (The Kite) - Razi Mohabi - 2003
Destha Sabz (Green Hands) - Zanemgira - 2003
Shabnam (The Dew) - Mohamed Heydari - 2003

 

SIDDIK BARMAK COMPLETE WORKS

Diwar (The Wall) - short film - 1983
Daira (The Circle) - short film - 1985
Beiganah (The Strangers) - short film - 1987
Osama - 2003

 

FULL-LENGTH FICTION FILMS

Ishq wa Dost (Love and Friendship) - Reshid Latifi - 1946
Talabgar (The request) - Khalek A'lil - 1969
Rabia e Balkhi (Rabia de Balkh) - Collectif (Toryalai Shafaq, Khalek A'lil, Abbas Shaban)- 1974
Mujasema ha Mekhandan (The Statues Are Laughing) - Toryalai Shafaq - 1976
Akhter Maskaneh (Akhter the Joker) - Latif Ahmadi - 1981
Lahzaha (Moments) - Wahed Nazari - 1983
Mard ha Ra Qaul Ast (Men Keep their Promises) - Saeed Orokzai - 1984
Hamaseh Ishq (The Epic of Love) - Latif Ahmadi - 1986
Ouruj (The Ascent) - Noor Hashem Abir - 1990
De Kouso Sargardan (The Tramp) - Ahad Zhowand - 1996
Khak wa khakester (Earth and Ashes) - Atiq Rahimi - 2004

 

See more information about:
- A brief history of Afghans and films
- Glamour in Afghan cinema (Women in Afghan cinema)
- General list of Afghans length fiction films

 

A HISTORIC STORY

Researching Afghan film history is itself a historic achievement.

1979: Creation of the Festival of the 3 Continents, Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and for the first time ever an article on Afghan cinema is published is the yearly edition of the International Film Guide. Others will follow until 1983. Afghan cinema does exist and we get interested in it, but we keep it for later because of the Soviet invasion.

1989: End of the Soviet invasion, a retrospective seems possible again, but civil war breaks out in Afghanistan, then the Taliban take power and we hear they are burning all the films they can lay their hands on. It looks like our retrospective is going up in flames.

2002: We read that most Afghan films were saved thanks to a few courageous people working for the State-owned Afghan Film, who hid the films. We are hopeful again.*

May 2003: In Cannes we meet Siddiq Barmak and his Osama. He tells me there are enough films for a retrospective. Through INA, the French Audiovisual Institute, France commits itself to saving the Afghan film heritage by digitalising all the films made on 16mm or 35mm. This is excellent news!

April 2004: Mission to Kabul. In a city devastated by war, there are a few havens where life seems to be normal, such as the French Embassy and Afghan Film which keeps the precious archives. In Afghan Film president and film-maker Engineer Latif AhmadiÕs office, there is a beautiful model of studios dating back to the Soviet era, which were never built. Latif Ahmadi is delighted with the idea of a retrospective at our festival. He implies that all the films, except for three or four of them, have been saved and that they can be viewed. But no general list of Afghan films exist, nor accurate dates or duration, and transcriptions and translations of titles vary a lot. So I watch about fifteen, mainly short, films (made in 2002Ð2004) and thirty features from the beginning of Afghan cinema until today. This is a curious array of films which reflect the political history of the country, through themes and genres, as well as a cultural synthesis combining the dominant Indian melodrama, the didactic Soviet realism, and the bittersweet comedy vaguely influenced by European cinema and the Nouvelle Vague. The most recent influence comes from Iranian cinema. A selection of 10 short films and 10 feature films will serve as a history of Afghan cinema through 20 film-makers.

May 2004: Digitalisation will start soon with a sophisticated machine brought from Paris by INA. The process is supposed to be over in a month.

September 2004: The digitalisation process has not yet been done. After many attempts and despite the presence of experts in Kabul, the machine is not fit for the Kabuli environment.
A special military plane will take all the films to be processed in France.

October 2004: Digitalisation is now over. A race against time starts so that the films are translated and subtitled in time.
Everything must be ready by 23 November...

Philippe Jalladeau