History--Afghan Cinema--"Bod na Bod"

Welcome to the Afghan Cinema history page! Please take a few minutes to read about the Afghan Cinema history and learn about some of the strengths, weaknesses and the challenges that the Afghan cinema has been facing ever since it was first founded more than 50 years ago.

Among most of our Afghan people it’s very common to say that, the Afghan cinema is very “Young”. Some even believes that the Afghan Cinema was first founded after the 7 or Hafte Sawr (the first mujahiden´s revolution). As a matter of fact it’s not so. As an example we can mention the first Afghan film, which was made together with the Indian cinema. The film was called "Eshq wa Dosti", and it was made at the time when Pakistan did not exist. So, it means that our Afghan Cinema is more than half a century old. In one’s opinion this time is quite enough not to call our cinema “Young”! As we mentioned above, the first Afghan film Eshq wa Dosti was produced by a small film industry. In Fact this film industry was producing only short, black and white films and documentaries. Later in 1965 the Afghan film was first established in the capital, Kabul and started producing films. Except the technical development in the cinema world the Afghan film had not so much success of technical improvement.

To get a better picture of the Afghan cinema history, it would be much better to analyze it in five steps.

Step one: The Young Afghan Cinema At the Beginning.

Afghan people were very familiar with the imported movies from abroad such as Indian films. The Afghan films were hardly excepted by the Afghan people to watch or get interested in. Despite the technical and economical challenges that the Afghan film industry was facing, still the producers and staff at the Afghan Film managed to start producing films. A good reason for their intusiasm and aspiration was the need to be recognized and identified as an independent nation and country worldwide . Some of the films which were made at that time are, "Eshq wa Dosti", "Andar ze Madar", "Gholame Eshq", "Rabea-e- Balkhi", and "Mazreha-e -Sabz"

Step Two: The Main Step of The Afghan Cinema

In this step the Afghan films got the interest of the Afghan people which the Afghan cinema missed at the beginning. It was considered to be a successful step for all the Afghan film staff towards furthering their efforts to attract more people into watching Afghani films. By making films such as, "Akhtar-e-Maskhara", "Mojasema ha Mekhandand", "Jenayatkaran", "Gonah" and "Mard ha ra Qawl Ast", the Afghan films caught a lot of interest among the Afghan people. As soon as they knew that a new Afghan film was released, they would go and watch it with great interest and also feeling very proud to see an Afghani film.

Step three: Government Regulations and The Film Industry

Unfortunately Afghanistan has always been involved with political crises and it has not only strucked the ancient history of Afghanistan, or the people of Aghanistan but it also has had effects on the Afghan cinema. Laws were made and enforced by the then government of Afghansitan on making films. The films were considered to just show their political views and the government’s purposes and policies. They used the Afghani Cinema as a tool to propagate their own political views and beliefs. The films which were made at that time are an echo of their poilitical interests. The films which were made at that time are "Shekaste Mahasera", "Safar", "Sabor-e-sarbaz", "Farar", and etc.

Step four: The Skilled Artists.

The aspiration of making films and acting in films made many Afghans to further their education abroad. This attempt was successful, and many of them had got educated and some were about to get educated in different areas of cinema. But the horrible war and immigration never let those educated artists to demonstrate their skills and talent in the movies. So Afghanistan and the people of Afghanistan never saw a glance of those educated artists anymore.

Step five: Afghan Cinema in The Foreign Countries.

(This Step has been updated)

As I wrote before about Afghan cinema in the foreign countries; films which were produced in foreign countries were not as good as the films produced inside Afghanistan. But now, this opinion has changed. Some films which are produced outside Afghanistan, have impressed greatly on Afghan cinema.

some of those films are: "FireDancer" and "In the wrong Hands".

Previous comments:

Unfortunately we can not count the Afghan films which were made in some foreign countries as good Afghan films. Some of those films which were made outside Afghanistan had good technical and economical access such as "Roya". Why these films do not count as good Afghan films is that, these films are not artful. The reason why these films are not artful is that the producer of these films considered these films just for business and never had a thought of art. "Sher Agha wa Shirin Gul", is a very good example of these films. And other films which have been newly made are "Eshq-e- Peery" and "Dar Sarzamine Begana", which we will write about them more soon.