News--Afghan Cinema--Bod na Bod--

Here are some news about Afghan Cinema or that has to do with Afghanistan.

Murdered director's film on Oscars list

BBC Tuesday, 3 December, 2002

A movie by an Afghan director who was beheaded in New York last year is among one of a record number of entries for the best foreign picture prize at the Oscars.

The film, FireDancer, was directed by Jawed Wassel, who was killed in October 2001.

A producer on the film, Nathan C Powell, was charged with murder and accused of keeping Wassel's head in a freezer.....click here to read more....

Afghan filmmakers go behind, beyond the burqa

The Christian Science Monitor
November 26, 2002
edition By Ilene R. Prusher - Staff writer

Kabul, AFGHANISTAN - Nasima Mustafa wants the world to see Afghanistan through her camera lens, even if it means filming through the mesh window of a burqa. "It was hard to see," says Ms. Mustafa, one of 13 women training to be Afghanistan's first broadcast camerawomen and
documentary filmmakers. "But when I have a burqa on, I feel safe." In a country where, until a year ago, photography was banned, and women and girls were forced to stay home from school and work, these are not exactly roles in which most Afghans are keen to accept women. The fact that many members of the country's press - both male and female - still practice self-censorship further complicates these budding journalists' challenge. Most days, though, shooting on location, the women's most pressing concerns are for their own safety........click here to read more....

22/11/2002 11:15 (sa)

Afghanistan war, the movie Los Angeles - Columbia Pictures is developing a war film focusing on the battle for the Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif in which horse-mounted US commandos battled the Taliban, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The untitled film is being produced by Mace Neufeld, the man behind big-screen adaptations of such Tom Clancy thrillers as Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger and The Sum of All Fears. The project marks the first attempt by a major studio to dramatise the US war in Afghanistan. "Essentially, this is a story about the first U.S. cavalry charge of the 21st century," Neufeld told the entertainment trade paper, describing the film as a cross between modern battle drama "Black Hawk Down" and the 1962 classic Lawrence of Arabia.

BBC.co.uk - World
Monday, 1 April, 2002
Catherine Davies - BBC
correspondent in Mazar-e-Sharif

New films released:

The first Afghan-made films to be shown in northern Afghanistan since the Taleban regime fell have been screened in the town of Mazar-e-Sharif. Their director, Siddiq Obadi, has just returned to the country after leaving in 1998 when the Taleban took Mazar. The two films shown, "Chopandaz" and "Grobat", were shot in neighbouring Uzbekistan. At a ceremony before the films, the head of the culture department in Mazar appealed to the interim government not to forget the film industry. He even urged the authorities to use it for the country's reconstruction. Cultural restoration The galloping horses and turbaned riders, camel fighting and bustling bazaars are quite different to the war-torn version of Afghanistan usually presented. "These films show the culture and tradition of the Afghan people," explained the director, Siddiq Obadi.

"Not everything here is about fighting. Before life came to be dominated by the gun," he said. "Afghans had a particular culture and history - that's what I hope can now be restored."
The showing of these two films was quite an event. A make-shift screen was set up in a spartan auditorium at the university. There were cheers for the director and clapping to the music. Reactions at the end were mixed, but what everyone enjoyed was that the films reflected Afghan life. Reviving markets The camel-fighting and traditional horseback game, buzkashi, were easily the most popular scenes. Indian films are found here in abundance; so are Hollywood action movies. The head of Mazar-e-Sharif's culture department expressed regret that so many foreign films were on sale. He said they had filled the gap left by Afghan films, which disappeared because of years of fighting. Mr Obadi is determined to revive the market for Afghan films. He hopes his work will stimulate interest in Afghan culture again, and plans to discuss the film industry with the country's interim leader, Hamid Karzai.

In The Wrong Hands:
Afghanistan's most loved comedian is now starring in his first film made in Hollywood. Mr. Haji Kamran has been entertaining for the last 35 years, from theaters to motion picture Wali Razaqi is one of Hollywood´s youngest new filmmakers. He has been a successful actor in film and television and now takes on his first role as an executive producer The young, talented, beautiful Danielle Rose has landed the lead in "in the wrong hands" in her acting debut.

Shekast:
A a joint venture by Afghan filmmakers and Indian Bollywood. Starring India's premire movie super star Qader Khan (who hails from Ghazni Afghanistan) and new talented Afghan stars from India and Europe. A movie About love, innocence and heartbreak. Starring: Qader Khan.

Aftaab e Bighroob:
The Ahmad Zahir story. The movie is produced and filmed in Central Asia mostly Tajikistan. A wonderful mixed cast of Afghan and Tajik actors with huge budget makes the movie more realistic. This is the first ever 35MM Afghan Motion Picture outside of Afghanistan. Starring: Gholam Jailani Joshan as Ahmad Zahir, Delaram, Wali Talash, Homayoon Paiez, Emal Haidary, Sweeta, Qahar Raoufi, Parweena and more. Directed by Jawansher Haidery and Produced by Jailani Joshan.

Soundtrack by Ahmad Zahir and Khalil Gudaz.

Kabul/(AFP)

With the puritanical Taliban regime toppled and people rediscovering their love of the cinema, Afghanistan's remaining filmmakers and actors have got together to shoot the first local film in 10 years. Entitled The Speculator, it is directed by Sayed Faruk Haybat and is due for completion towards the end of January.

It deals, Haybat said, with the evils of speculating in currency and goods -- a common practice in Afghanistan. The film is being specially made for screening on Afghan television, according to Haybat, because the station -- which restarted within hours of the Taliban fleeing Kabul on November 12 -- is short of material. Nazir Ahmad Fazli, the director of cinema at Afghan television, said 30 films had been discovered in the archives but most had been damaged due to poor storage conditions.

Others contained rape scenes or showed women as stars - making them unsuitable for screening in Afghanistan where, despite the toppling of the Taliban, society is still conservative. The new movie brings together again some veterans of the Afghan cinema industry, many of whom studied in India and Moscow and who projected the local industry onto international big screens in the 1970s. But many film producers, especially those who worked on politico-social movies, have fled the country.

KABUL (Reuters)

On a snowy winter's morning in the Afghan capital, three teenage boys are playing truant from school, gambling and smoking cigarettes. One boy in jeans and a denim jacket takes an exaggerated puff on his cigarette and collapses in a coughing fit. "Cut!" shouts the director, and the opening scene of the first Afghan film to be made in six years is in the can. The 45-minute made-for-television movie aims to keep teenagers on the straight and narrow with its negative portrayal of the boys, who are eventually persuaded to change their ways by the film's hard-studying hero. Director Bakhram Barial said making the film, which is entitled "Srisk" ("Tears"), was an important milestone for the beleaguered Afghan film industry, which the country's ousted Taliban rulers tried their best to destroy.

"When the Taliban came, they banned all film and television and all our best actors and directors left the country," said Barial, who has made several films in Afghanistan and in exile in Pakistan. "They destroyed our equipment, burned our archives. Everything we needed for making films was taken away." The $300 budget for the film has been supplied by the Ministry of Culture of the interim government created after the fall of the fundamentalist Muslim Taliban in December. The little-known young actors are giving their services for free. "I am playing one of the bad boys," said Abdul Qadir Rashidi, a 17-year-old with slicked-back hair who played small roles in television dramas as a child. "It's a great opportunity for us and we hope everyone likes it. If it's a success, then we'll make an even bigger film." Rashidi glances over the Dari language script to prepare for the next scene while the enthusiastic Barial, in a white trilby hat, shouts instructions to his crew.

"Srisk" aims to highlight the positive aspects of Afghan culture, which Barial said many of the country's youngsters know little about. "Twenty three years of war has had a terrible effect on our young people," he said. "Many of them were refugees, most of them are illiterate. They know nothing about their own culture. This film is like a picture book for them, so those who cannot read can understand our message." The film, shot with one video camera, will take 17 days to complete and will be shown on Kabul television next month. "There will be no clever camera angles, no special effects," said Barial, who says he draws his inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock. "But we have a powerful message and we hope it will have an impact."