Cinema was introduced to Afghanistan at the beginning of the 20th century. Political troubles[which?] slowed the industry over the years; however, numerous Pashto and Dari films have been made both inside and outside Afghanistan throughout the 20th century. The cinema of Afghanistan entered a new phase in 2001, but has failed to recover to its popular pre-war status.[1]
Emir Habibullah Khan, who reigned from 1901 to 1919, introduced film to Afghanistan, but in the royal court only. In 1923–24, the first projector or "magic box" or mageek lantan ('magic lantern') – showed the first silent film in Paghman to the public. The first Afghan film, Love and Friendship, was produced in 1946.[3]
In Kabul, the Behzad Cinema became the first theatre in Afghanistan, and Cinema Park was also among the earliest to have been built in the 1950s. Among the most prominent cinemas in Kabul before the 1990s were the Pamir, Ariana, Aryob, Barikot and Baharestan cinemas.[4]
When the Afghan Film Organization was established in 1968, it produced documentaries and news films highlighting the official meetings and conferences of the government. All these films were shown in cinemas before feature films, which were usually from India. The first feature film made in Kabul by Afghan Film using Afghan artists was Like Eagles (1969) directed by Khair Zada.[5] Another claim to first Afghan feature is Afghan Film's three-part The Times (1970), which comprised Smugglers, Suitors and Friday Night.[6] Other films from this period, sometimes produced by other film companies and often with Russian-trained directors, included Difficult Days/Rozhai Dushwar (1974)[7],The Statues are Laughing/Mujasemeha Mekhandad (1976),[8] and Village Tunes. All of these films were shot in black and white. Film artists of this era included Toryali Shafaq, Khan Aqa Soroor, Rafeeq Saadiq, Azizullah Hadaf, Mashal Honaryar and Parvin Sanatgar.
The first color films produced by Afghan Film in the early 1980s, often propaganda, included Run Away/Farar (1984), Saboor Soldier/Saboor Sarbaaz (1984),[8] 1986's Love Epic/Hamaseh Ishq (1986),[9] 'Ash' (Khakestar), 'Last Wishes' (Akharin Arezo) and The Immigrant Birds/Pardehaje Mohajer (1987).[10] These films, usually shown only in urban areas, became popular.
During the late 1960s and 1970s Soviet aid included cultural training and scholarships for students interested in studying film. However, since Afghanistan had no film academy, future filmmakers had to apprentice on the job. The threecivilwars of the 1990s were not conducive to creative work and many people working in the Afghan film industry escaped to Iran or Pakistan, where they were able to make videos for NGOs. The new government banned production of films in 1993.[11]
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.[12] Habibullah Ali of Afghan Film hid thousands of films, buried underground or in hidden rooms, to prevent their destruction by the Taliban.[13]Teardrops was the first post-Taliban film in 2002, and the first film since Oruj in 1990.[14] On November 19, 2001, Bakhtar was the first cinema to re-open its doors, where thousands of people entered that day.[15]
Afghan Film Organization
Afghan Film also known as Afghan Film Organization (AFO) were former Afghanistan's state-run film company. It was established in 1968 and the last president was Sahraa Karimi, the first female head of the organisation.[16]
Reemergence
Since 2001, the cinema of Afghanistan has slowly started to re-emerge from a lengthy period of silence. Before the September 11th attacks, Afghanistan-based Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf attracted world attention to Afghanistan with Kandahar (2001). The film brought the cinema of Afghanistan to the Cannes film festival for the first time in history. Later Samira Makhmalbaf, Siddiq Barmak, Razi Mohebi, Horace Shansab, Yassamin Maleknasr and Abolfazl Jalili made a significant contribution to Dari (Persian) cinema in Afghanistan.
Barmak's first Persian/Pashto film Osama (2003) won several awards at film festivals in Cannes and London. Barmak is also director of the Afghan Children Education Movement (ACEM), an association that promotes literacy, culture and the arts, founded by Iranian film director Mohsen Makhmalbaf. The school trains actors and directors for the emerging cinema of Afghanistan. In 2006 Afghanistan joined the Central Asian and Southern Caucasus Film Festivals Confederation.
In the 1970s and 1980s, it was not difficult to get women to act in films. The war and the Taliban rule changed the situation, but they now are increasingly represented in the cinema of Afghanistan. Actresses like Leena Alam, Amina Jafari, Saba Sahar (now also a director) and Marina Gulbahari have emerged over the last decade.
Apart from cinema in Persian, Pashto cinema is also flourishing in Afghanistan. Several Pashto language films have been made since the fall of the Taliban, including some by foreigners like Good Morning Afghanistan (2003) by Camilla Nielsson.[17]
Kabullywood (2017) is a comedy-drama directed by Louis Meunier that was shot entirely in Kabul. As part of the movie, Meunier crowdfunded the renovation of the once-prosperous Aryub Cinema in the city, but without it opening as planned.[18]
The old Park Cinema (Cīnemā Pārk), demolished in 2020
The public cinema industry has not managed to recover, with many cinemas in Kabul either falling into disrepair or attracting low numbers of customers.[19] The issue reached national attention at the end of 2020 when the municipality decided to demolish the neglected but historic Cinema Park, sparking protests by activists.[20]
B-movies
There are a number of films produced both inside and outside Afghanistan that are considered B-movies due to the low production quality and audience reach. These films are targeted mainly at an Afghan audience and rarely make it to the non-Afghan audiences or the international film festivals.
Outside Afghanistan
Many filmmakers fled the country due to war, and began to make films outside Afghanistan. Some films made outside Afghanistan include the Shirin Gul-o-Shir Agha trilogy made in Russia, Foreign Land, Loori, Sheraghai Daghalbaaz,[21]In the Wrong Hands (2002),[22]Shade of Fire, Asheyana and Khana Badosh in the UK, Do Atash and Waris in the Netherlands, 3 Friends and Al Qarem (2006)[23] in the United States, Shekast in Pakistan, Aftaab e Bighroob in Tajikistan, Kidnapping in Germany, and Gridami in Italy.[citation needed] Most notable of all were Academy Award submission FireDancer (2002) and French-based film Earth and Ashes (2004).[citation needed]
Zolykha's Secret (2007; Rahze Zolykha in Persian) is also among the first feature films from post-Taliban Afghanistan, which played to full houses at major film festivals. The film's director, Horace Ahmad Shansab, trained young Afghan filmmakers and made the film entirely on location in Afghanistan.
Emaan (2010) was screened at Reading Cinemas in Australia. This is the first time an Afghan film has been screened at Reading. It was the winner of 2011 South Asian Film Festival in Canberra for Best Story and Best Film.
Notable short films include No Woman (2015) and We are postmodern.[28]
The highest grossing Afghan film isOsama, earning $3,800,000 worldwide from a budget of only $46,000. The film was very well received by the Western cinematic world. It gathered a rating of 96% based on 100 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes.
The music of Afghanistan comprises many varieties of classical music, folk music, and modern popular music. Afghanistan has a rich musical heritage and features a mix of Persian melodies, Indian compositional principles, and sounds from ethnic groups such as the Pashtuns, Tajiks and Hazaras. Instruments used range from Indian tablas to long-necked lutes. Afghanistan's classical music is closely related to Hindustani classical music while sourcing much of its lyrics directly from classical Persian poetry such as Mawlana Balkhi (Rumi) and the Iranian tradition indigenous to central Asia. Lyrics throughout most of Afghanistan are typically in Dari (Persian) and Pashto. The multi-ethnic city of Kabul has long been the regional cultural capital, but outsiders have tended to focus on the city of Herat, which is home to traditions more closely related to Iranian music than in the rest of the country.
Samira Makhmalbaf is an Iranian filmmaker and screenwriter. She is the daughter of Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the film director and writer. Samira Makhmalbaf is considered to be part of the Iranian New Wave. She has won multiple awards, including two Jury Prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, and has been nominated for numerous awards.
Mohsen Makhmalbaf is an Iranian film director, writer, film editor, and producer. He has made over 20 feature films, won 50 awards, and been a juror in more than 15 major film festivals. His award-winning films include Kandahar; his latest documentary is The Gardener and latest feature The President.
Marina Golbahari is an Afghan actress who earned international fame for her role as the title character in the 2003 film Osama, playing a girl who had to dress and act as a boy to support her family during the Taliban years.
The cinema of Iran, or of Persia, refers to the film industry in Iran. In particular, Iranian art films have garnered international recognition. Iranian films are usually written and spoken in the Persian language.
Osama is a 2003 drama film made in Afghanistan by Siddiq Barmak. The film follows a preteen girl living in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime who disguises herself as a boy, Osama, to support her family. It was the first film to be shot entirely in Afghanistan since 1996, when the Taliban regime banned the creation of all films. As of 2018, the film was the highest-grossing Afghan film of all time. The film is an international co-production between companies in Afghanistan, the Netherlands, Japan, Ireland, and Iran.
Hana Makhmalbaf is an Iranian filmmaker. She is the younger sister of filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf and daughter of filmmakers Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Fatemeh Meshkini. She is known for her films Joy of Madness (2003),Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame (2007) and Green Days (2009). Makhmalbaf won the Lina Mangiacapre Award at the Venice Film Festival in 2003 for Joy of Madness (2003). Joy of Madness also won the Special Jury Prize at Tokyo Filmex. Makhmalbaf's film Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame won various awards as well, such as the Paolo Ungari UNICEF Prize from the Rome Film Festival and the Peace Film Award at the Berlin International Film Festival.
At Five in the Afternoon is a 2003 film by Iranian writer-director Samira Makhmalbaf. It tells the story of an ambitious young woman trying to gain an education in Afghanistan after the defeat of the Taliban. The title comes from a Federico García Lorca poem and is a tale of flourishing against the odds.
Kandahar is a 2001 Iranian film directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf, set in Afghanistan during the rule of the Taliban. Its original Afghan title is Safar-e Ghandehar, which means "Journey to Kandahar", and it is alternatively known as The Sun Behind the Moon. The film is based on a partly true, partly fictionalized story of Nafas, a successful Afghan-Canadian woman played by Nelofer Pazira.
Siddiq Barmak is an Afghan film director and producer. In 2004, Barmak won Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globes for his first feature film, Osama. He received an M.A. degree in cinema direction from the Moscow Film Institute (VGIK) in 1987.
Afghan Film also known as Afghan Film Organization (AFO) is Afghanistan's state-run film company, established in 1968. The former president is Sahraa Karimi, who attained a PhD in Cinema from the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava and is its first female president. The Afghan Film is now headed by Mawlawi Shafiullah Javid "Afghan".
Leena Alam is an Afghan film, television, and theater actress. She has appeared in films such as Kabuli Kid, Black Kite, Loori, A Letter to the President and Hassan. She is widely known to have worked on film and TV that speak of child marriage, gender inequality, women's rights and social conflicts.
Wajma (An Afghan Love Story) is a 2013 Afghan drama film written and directed by Barmak Akram. The film was selected as the Afghan entry to compete for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar at the 86th Academy Awards.
Zolykha's Secret or Rahze Zolykha (2006) is an Afghan film directed by Horace Shansab. It is one of the first feature films produced in the post-Taliban Afghanistan.
Roya Sadat is an Afghan film producer and director. She was the first woman director in the history of Afghan cinema in the post-Taliban era, and ventured into making feature films and documentaries on the theme of injustice and restrictions imposed on women. Following the fall of the Taliban regime in the country, she made her debut feature film Three Dots. For this film she received six of nine awards which included as best director and best film. In 2003,A Letter to the President her most famous film that received many international awards, she and her sister Alka Sadat established the Roya Film House and under this banner produced more than 30 documentaries and feature films and TV series. She is now involved to direct the opera of A Thousand Splendid Suns for the Seattle Opera and she is during pre production of her 2nd feature film Forgotten History.
Sahraa Karimi is an Afghan film director who was notably the first female chairperson of the Afghan Film Organization. She has directed 30 short films, 3 documentary films and one fiction film Hava, Maryam, Ayesha which had the world premier at the 76th Venice Film Festival. Prior to the fall of Kabul to the hands of the Taliban, she was the first and the only woman to be directing Afghanistan's film entity.
Hava, Maryam, Ayesha is a 2019 Afghan drama film directed by Sahraa Karimi. It was the first independent film shot in Afghanistan with an all-Afghan cast and crew. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and had its first screening in Asia at the Busan International Film Festival.
The Afghan film festival in Australia was established in 2019 as an annual showcase of Afghan cinema in Australia. It takes place in Canberra and is jointly hosted by the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the ANU Film Group, at the Australian National University.
Ariana Cinema is a movie theater in Kabul, Afghanistan located near the Pashtunistan Square on the north side of the Kabul river bank. It is considered to be the second oldest cinema in Kabul city center, after Behzad Cinema, and is one of the few remaining in operation. It is publicly owned.
↑ Johnston, Chris; Seale, James A. (2002-01-04), In the Wrong Hands, Haji Kamran, Wali Razaqi, Danielle Rose, Raz Entertainment, Raz Productions, retrieved 2023-05-24
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