Afghan women and cinema: MADE IN AFGHANISTAN
For years Casa Asia has been rescuing Afghan cinema, which it was a minority cinema until now and unfortunately the last episodes of last August have made it gain great interest, as has happened with this country. A great unknown in the West, despite being the center of the main international conflicts from the late twentieth century to the present.
The cinema made by Afghan women brings together testimonies of the domestic and daily life of this country, but also of its political and social life, which today are essential to reconstruct its history.
The program that CASA ASIA will do at CINETECA Madrid during the week of March 8th to 12th, on the celebration of this year’s Women’s Day, consists of four sessions in which the films of the following filmmakers Sahra Mani, Shahrbanoo Sadat, Sedika Mojadidi and Mariam Ghani will be screened. Director Sahra Mani will travel to Madrid to present her film A Thousand Girls Like Me, which has received numerous awards at the international festivals where it has been screened. It is the first time that a program dedicated to films made by women in Afghanistan has been made, although most of its protagonists will continue for the moment their trajectory in the host countries where they currently reside.
SCHEDULING:
March 8 th , 2022, at 7 p.m.
A Thousand Girls Like Me | Dir: Sahra Mani | 2018 | 76’ | VOSE
March 9 th , 2022, at 7 p.m.
Wolf and Sheep | Dir: Shahrbanoo Sadat | 2016 | 86’ |VOSE
March 10 th , 2022, at 7 p.m.
Facing the Dragon | Dir: Sedika Mojadidi | 2019 | 80’ | VOSE
March 12 th, 2022, at 7 p.m.
What We Left Unfinished | Dir: Mariam Ghani |2019 | 72’ |VOSE
PROGRAM:
March 8th, 2022, at 7 p.m.
A Thousand Girls Like Me | Dir: Sahra Mani | 2018 | 76’ | VOSE | Documentary
Sexual violence against women has been a crime since 2009 in Afghanistan. But, in practice, women fear possible retaliation for bringing charges. Sadly, Khatera’s story is the typical example of this phenomenon: she and her mother have received threats, including from their own relatives, and have been forced to move frequently. Khatera’s father abused her during her childhood and has made her pregnant on multiple occasions. Khatera has suffered several miscarriages before eventually giving birth to a baby girl. Following the advice of a mullah, he has explained his story on a television program and has filed charges against his father. The film was presented at the 2019 Göteborg Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival 2019, the Sheffield International Documentary Festival 2018 and the Fribourg International Film Festival 2019.
March 9th, 2022, at 7 p.m.
Wolf and Sheep | Dir: Shahrbanoo Sadat | 2016 | 86’ | Drama
In rural Afghanistan, people invent and tell mysterious and imaginative stories to try to explain the world in which they live. Shepherd boys are the owners of the mountains, but they know that boys and girls are not allowed to be together. The boys practice with their slingshots to fight the wolves, while the girls secretly smoke and play pretend to marry, dreaming of finding a husband. They whisper over Sediga. She is eleven years old and an outcast. The girls think that a curse weighs on her. Qodrat, also eleven, becomes the focus of rumors when her mother remarries a man who already has two wives. Qodrat wanders alone in the most isolated places of the mountains, where he meets Sediga and they become friends.
March 10th, 2022, at 7 p.m.
Facing the Dragon | Dir: Sedika Mojadidi | 2019 | 80’ | VOSE
In this documentary, the director followed the lives of two extraordinary Afghan women for four years: Nilofar, a member of parliament, and Shakila, a television journalist. The withdrawal of American forces and international aid to Afghanistan leaves democracy and women’s recent victories hanging in the balance, so Nilofar and Shakila will have to choose between motherhood and their professional ambitions, in the face of the growing threats that weigh on them and their families.
March 12th, 2022, at 7 p.m.
What We Left Unfinished | Dir: Mariam Ghani | 2019 | 72’ | VOSE | Documentary
It tells the story of five unfinished feature films from the communist era in Afghanistan (1978-
1991). When films were loaded with messages, filmmakers became targets and dreams of ever-changing political regimes merged with stories told on screen. It’s also a tribute to a tight-knit group of Afghan filmmakers who loved cinema enough to risk their lives for it. Despite government interference, censorship boards, scarcity of resources, armed opposition, and almost constant threats of arrest and even death, subversive films were made and, in the opinion of the filmmakers, always faithful to reality. The five films, The April Revolution (1978), Downfall (1987), The Black Diamond (1989), Wrong Way (1990) and Agent (1991), completed principal photography before being canceled by the state or abandoned by the filmmakers. They were never edited but escaped censorship.
Introduction and colloquium of all sessions: Menene Gras Balaguer
Sahra Mani to present A Thousand Girls Like Me
