Afghan Films
From Wikipedia: When the Taliban took power in 1996, cinemas were attacked and many films were burnt. The Taliban forbade the viewing of television and films and cinemas were closed, either becoming tea shops or restaurants or falling into a state of disrepair. Habibullah Ali of Afghan Film hid thousands of films, buried underground or in hidden rooms, to prevent their destruction by the Taliban.Teardrops was the first post-Taliban film in 2002, and the first film since Oruj in 1995. On November 19, 2001, Bakhtar was the first cinema to re-open its doors, where thousands of people entered that day.
Rules: From 2002-2021
Which of these Afghan films best exemplifies filmmaking in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2021?
All Afghan films listed on IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?countries=af
Discuss here
Rules: From 2002-2021
Which of these Afghan films best exemplifies filmmaking in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2021?
All Afghan films listed on IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?countries=af
Discuss here
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- DirectorMarc ForsterStarsKhalid AbdallaAhmad Khan MahmoodzadaAtossa LeoniAfter spending years in California, Amir returns to his homeland in Afghanistan to help his old friend Hassan, whose son is in trouble.
- DirectorSiddiq BarmakStarsMarina GolbahariZubaida SaharKhwaja NaderAfter the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the restriction of women in public life, a pre-teen girl is forced to masquerade as a boy in order to find work to support her mother and grandmother.
- DirectorAtiq RahimiStarsGolshifteh FarahaniHamid DjavadanHassina BurganIn a war ridden country a woman watches over the husband reduced to a vegetable state by a bullet in the neck, abandoned by Jihad companions and brothers. One day, the woman decides to say things to him she could never have done before.
- DirectorSebastian JungerStarsLaMonta CaldwellMiguel CortezStephen GillespieKorengal picks up where Restrepo (2010) left off--with the same men, in the same valley, with the same commanders--but presents a very different look at the experience of war.
- DirectorDavid SalzbergChristian TureaudStarsFrank AdamskiOfren ArrechagaEd BankstonArmed only with their cameras, Peabody and Emmy Award-winning conflict Journalist Mike Boettcher, and his son, Carlos, provide unprecedented access into the longest war in U.S. history.
- DirectorDanfung DennisStarsNathan HarrisAshley HarrisThe Marines of Echo CompanyWhat does it mean to lead men in war? What does it mean to come home? Hell and Back Again is a cinematically revolutionary film that asks and answers these questions with a power and intimacy no previous film about the conflict in Afghanistan has been able to achieve. It is a masterpiece in the cinema of war.
- DirectorHana MakhmalbafStarsAbbas AlijomeAbdolali HoseinaliNikbakht NoruzIn Afghanistan, a young girl wants to go to school and learn to read and write, but is met with hostility or indifference.
- DirectorGreg BarkerStarsOsama bin LadenNada BakosMarty MartinFilled with testimony and recollections from actual C.I.A. agents, this in-depth account reveals the remarkable true story of the pursuit of the world's most notorious terrorist, Osama bin Laden.
- DirectorSam FrenchStarsFawad MohammadiJawanmard PaizWali TalashSet against the dramatic landscape of contemporary Afghanistan and the National sport of Buzkashi - a brutal game of horse polo played with a dead goat - Buzkashi Boys tells the coming of age story of two best friends, a charismatic street urchin and a defiant blacksmith's son, who struggle to realize their dreams as they make their way to manhood in one of the most war-torn countries on Earth. Shot on location in Kabul city by an alliance of Afghan and international film makers, Buzkashi Boys is a look at the life that continues beyond the headlines of war in Afghanistan.
- DirectorPieter-Jan De PueStarsGholam NasirKhyrgyz BajNoorA gang of Afghan kids from the Kuchi tribe dig out old Soviet mines and sell the explosives to children working in a lapis lazuli mine. When not dreaming of the time when American troops finally withdraw from their land, another gang of children keeps tight control on the caravans smuggling the blue gemstones through the arid mountains of Pamir.
- DirectorMarzieh MakhmalbafStarsGol-GhotaiZahedAgheleh RezaieThe story of survival of 2 children in post-Taliban Afghanistan. Their mother has been imprisoned for "adultery" and their father is in Guantanamo Bay.
- DirectorJamshid MahmoudiStarsNoor Agha AhmadiMahdi EbadiHasiba EbrahimiA romance blooms between a young Iranian man working in a factory in Tehran and the daughter of an Afghan worker.
- DirectorShahrbanoo SadatStarsKaran Jeet SinghQodratEshanullah KharotiA 15-year-old ticket scalper in Kabul dreams of Bollywood until the Soviets force him into a state facility.
- DirectorSamira MakhmalbafStarsZiya Mirza MohamadHaron AhadGol-GhotaiA wealthy boy hires a poor child to carry him around like a horse.
- DirectorAtiq RahimiStarsAbdul GhaniJawan Mard HomayounSher AgahElderly Dastaguir and his newly deaf 5-year-old grandson Yassin hitchhike and walk, but mostly walk, as they make their way to the coal mine where Dastaguir's son Murad works. Dastaguir must tell Murad that the rest of their family were all killed in a recent bomb attack.
- DirectorBarmak AkramStarsWajma BaharMustafa AbdulsatarHaji Gul AserIt's snowing in Kabul, and gregarious waiter Mustafa charms a pretty student named Wajma. The pair begins a clandestine relationship - they're playful and passionate but ever mindful of the societal rules they are breaking. After Wajma discovers she is pregnant, her certainty that Mustafa will marry her falters, and word of their dalliance gets out. Her father must decide between his culturally held right to uphold family honor and his devotion to his daughter.
- DirectorSaeed Taji FaroukyMichael McEvoyThe war in Afghanistan, through the eyes of the Afghans who live it.
- DirectorBarmak AkramStarsHaji Gul AserValéry SchatzAmélie GlennA woman in a light-blue chadri abandons her infant in the backseat of a cab in the bustling streets of post-war Kabul.
- DirectorJamshid MahmoudiStarsMohsen TanabandehMojtaba PirzadehFatemeh HosseiniAzim, an afghan refugee, who works at the municipality at night, lives in Tehran along with his family. Being the head of entire family and as the eldest brother, he arranges for his brother Faroogh, and his family along with their mother to be smuggled into Germany. But at the last moments Faroogh, shamefully makes his decision known to Azim that he's not going to take their mother who is very attached to her grandchildren. Azim who feels lonely and is furious, accidentally finds out that his mother is in dire need of a kidney transplant, otherwise she'll die in 2 months. During his search for a donor, he discovers that Iranians are not legally permitted to donate their organs to foreigners and he is the only donor although the doctor recommends him seriously not to do so. Now, he has to choose between his own life and his mother's whom he has always claimed as the most important one in his life.
- DirectorShahrbanoo SadatStarsQodratAminaSaharBased upon unpublished diaries, the film assumes the role of an anthropologist observing remote shepherd communities in Afghanistan where wolves and sheep have equal importance.
- DirectorDavid HolbrookeStarsMadeleine AlbrightChristiane AmanpourRina AmiriTHE DIPLOMAT tells the remarkable story of the life and legacy of Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, whose singular career spanned fifty years of American foreign policy - from Vietnam to Afghanistan.
- DirectorNavid MahmoudiStarsReza AhmadiFereshteh HosseiniBehrang AlaviTwo young Afghans,Fereshteh and Nabi, are in love, but Fereshteh has to follow her parents and leave Afghanistan to find refuge in Iran. Nabi decides to illegally cross the border, find Fereshteh and take her through Turkey towards Europe and a better life.
- DirectorNavid MahmoudiStarsNeda JebraeiliHasti MahdavifarAnahita AfsharThe lives of seven women and their personal struggles.
- DirectorJustin RobertsStarsGene DelgadoJameson LindskogNo Greater Love explores a combat deployment through the eyes of an Army chaplain, as he and his men fight their way through a hellish tour in one of the most dangerous places in Afghanistan and then as they struggle to reintegrate home.
- DirectorCary StuartStarsPam AfricaChuck DDJ Green LanternImmortal Technique emerged from prison a changed man. As his inner journey continues he travels the world promoting a revolution of consciousness through hip-hop. His path from a troubled youth to a fearless revolutionary is an inspirational must-see.
- DirectorMaryam EbrahimiNima SarvestaniThis documentary takes viewers inside one of the worlds most restricted environments - an afghan women's' prison. Through the prisoners own stories we explore how moral crimes are used to control women in Afghanistan.
- DirectorPhil GrabskyStarsMir HussainIn 2001, the Taliban government of Afghanistan destroyed the Buddhas of Bamiyan, the world's tallest stone sculptures. By the summer of 2002, after the fall of the Taliban, more than 250 Afghans, most of them Hazara refugees, were living in caves beside the rubble. This film, organized chronologically over four seasons, follows a refugee family living there, including Mir, a smiling lad of eight. The landscape is stark, the winter is harsh, the refugees' stories are harrowing, Mir's school is crowded and ill equipped, helicopters move across the sky, and the roads carry mostly military vehicles, yet Mir's family hopes for a house and a bright future.
- DirectorGozde KuralStarsÖykü KarayelBeran SoysalErkan AkbulutAzra, Emir, Ahmet are three siblings who were born and raised in Istanbul, their family originally from Afghanistan. After their mother's death, Azra who regrets about her weakness of family bounds, doesn't hesitate about making her mother's last wish come true and she decides to take a dangerous journey to bury her mother in Afghanistan.
- DirectorSonia Nassery ColeStarsDamla SönmezDefne KayalarMert Ramazan DemirI Am You is inspired by the story of a refugee, the horrendous conditions before his heroic journey, the heartbreaking indifference confronting him along the way, and the uplifting power and humanity found in hope, truth and justice.
- DirectorChristophe de PonfillyStarsSacha BourdoPatrick ChauvelPhilippe CaubèreA Russian guitarist was enlisted in 1984 in the Afghan war. Imprisoned, he will meet an Afghan musician and a French journalist.
- DirectorAboozar AminiStarsMahdi EbadiA city is an orchestration of its inhabitants. The film portraits the city Kabul through daily details of two kids and a bus driver, set against the background of a city destroyed by politic and religious powers.
- DirectorNavid MahmoudiStarsMatin HeydariniaSadaf AsgariAli ShadmanA young Afghan couple is trying to leave Afghanistan and to exile to Europe from Afghanistan in a hope to find a better life. To execute this plan, they first illegally arrive in Iran by bus. He stays in the residence of another Afghan friend who is already in Tehran and is ready to move to Turkey. But finally, they realize that they need convincing reasons to move from Turkey to Europe and be recognized as refugees. Eventually, she tries to convert from Islam to Catholicism, but there are even greater problems and dangers.
- DirectorSiddiq BarmakStarsPeter BussianJoe SubaFawad SamaniTwo American soldiers wounded in the Afghanistan desert stumble across a Russian tank which has a group of Afghanis living inside.
- DirectorHana MakhmalbafStarsBibigol AsefSima AsefAgheleh FarahmandDocumentary showing the backstage of production of Samira Makhmalbaf's film Panj É Asr(At Five in the Afternoon), in Kabul, after the fall of the Taliban regime. Everything was recorded with a small digital camera by Samira's 14-year-old sister Hana.
- DirectorRebecca BarryStarsHabibaBreani SaintongeSix girls coming of age, ready to become something extraordinary.