In Afghanistan, women deciding to be actors make a dangerous choice. Banned under Taliban rule (1994-2001), Afghan theater is experiencing a comeback with many women at the forefront. But with powerful forces of Islamic fundamentalism, a resurgent Taliban, and patriarchal traditions in play, actresses often face the harshest criticism and are even sometimes viewed as prostitutes. Socially ostracized, and pressured to abandon their careers, they receive beatings and death threats for them and their family. Some are forced to flee the country and some are even killed.
SEARCH FOR FREEDOM traces the dramatic social and political history of Afghanistan from the 1920s to the present through the stories of four remarkable women: Princess Shafiqa Saroj, sister of the beloved progressive King Amanullah (1919-1929); Mairman Parveen, the first woman to sing on Afghan r...
Tell Spring Not to Come This Year follows one unit of the Afghan National Army over the course of their first year of deployment in Helmand without NATO support. It is an intimate film about the human side of combat, told from a largely unheard and misrepresented perspective, that explores the de...
Manual labourers during the day, rock musicians during the night, Akbar, Hakim, Mohammad and Soraya dream of performing their first rock concert in Afghanistan. They all come from Afghan refugee parents who fled to Iran in early 80s. Born and raised in Iran, their dream of rock music make them em...
