With thanks to the filmmakers and Reena Mohan
1. Addicted in Afghanistan
Dir: Jawed Timan, (75'/2009)
Addicted in Afghanistan, the feature-length debut of director Jawed Taiman, is about the teenagers Jabar and Zahir, both of whom are from Kabul and come from families that have been ravaged by drugs. Zahir used opium for the first time when his drug-addicted mother gave it to him at age eight, and the two boys spend their days looking for their next heroin score. The film sketches an intimate portrait of their lives in the slums of the city, where they smoke heroin in their decrepit houses or leave the detox clinic for the umpteenth time. But there are also some lighthearted moments, such as when Jabar and Zahir exuberantly pull the legs of passersby in broken English in the opening scene.
2. Checkpoint
Dir: Hamid Alizadeh, (29min)
Checkpoint is about the daily routine of a police team tasked with scanning the vehicles entering Kabul. The film reveals how the city remains indifferent to the policemen.
3. Death to the Camera
Dir: S. Qasean Hoseni, (21min)
A camera moves among woman working their last day on a job site. As they joke and fight – accusing each other of being prostitutes, liars, and racists – the mood repeatedly shifts between belly laughs and rage. The women are left waiting for hours for their pay by the charity that administers the cash-for-work program. As they wait, they consider what debts they'll pay off, what food they'll buy, and how they'll stay warm during the approaching winter. There is lively discussion about what happens to all the aid that never reaches them, and whether Karzai is a crook or a servant of the people.Is the camera revealing anything truthful, or simply inciting these women to present what they think 'the other' wants to hear – or what might get them something from the world on the other side of the camera? Who is on the other side of that camera anyway?
4. Half Value Life
Dir: Alka Sadat, (25min)
Afghanistan is still a country where girls are married off at a very young age and cases of child marriages are common in remote villages. Another practice is also using girls as a payment means for settling down disputes or debts between different families. Girls and women become victims of mistreatment and abuse from the side of husbands and husbands' families. Director Alka Sadat brings the issue forward through a touching glimpse into the work of Marya Basher, the first woman in Afghanistan to have become a senior provincial investigator officer, high-responsibility position women are often considered incapable to carry. In her job, by actively supporting mistreated young girls and women Marya Basher puts her life and life of her family in serious danger. The radio present throughout the document is a surviving symbol of the limited contact these women have with the world outside the house they are trapped in.
Animation
1) Shelter, 6min
2) Hitler, 6.40 min
3) Death to Freedom, 3.5 min
4) Hope, 2min
