Afghanistan in Krakow (English version)

AFGHANISTAN IN KRAKOW
3rd Afghan Film Festival
March 10-13, 2016

Kino Pod Baranami presents the 3rd Afghan Film Festival Afghanistan in Krakow  which will take place from the 10th to the 13th of March. The previous edition of the event in 2008 attracted great interest from the audience. Its success encouraged the organizers to join forces once again and invite viewers in Krakow to unique film screenings. Presentation of 24 Afghan movies will be accompanied by meetings and discussions with the authors.

News from Afghanistan are mostly negative and disturbing as the media are focused on tragedies of war and terrorist attacks. The main intention of the 3rd Afghan Film Festival is to show the different facets of the country - not from the perspective of foreigners but from the inside, from the point of view of its citizens. Contrary to popular belief, the Afghans are able to critically look at the society in which they live and strive for positive change.



Despite the difficulties in access to films, a rich and diverse cross-section of Afghan cinema will be presented at the festival: feature films, documentaries and animations, mostly from the last fifteen years. The majority of the older, pre-war films was burned by the Taliban and only a few have been digitized. It is also important to enumerate difficulties in making films in Afghanistan: lack of adequate infrastructure, lack of financial support for artists from the state, danger of shooting pictures outdoors. Each screening will start with unique newsreels from 1968 which show tragic consequences of 36 years of war.

The festival opens with the award-winning (official selection of Berlinale 2015, Audience Award at the Tofifest IFF in Torun) Mina Walking (dir. Yosef Baraki), a story of a 12-year-old girl who takes care of her family and secretly attends school classes. The film was shot in quasi-documentary style on the streets of Kabul. The programme also includes The Patience Stone (dir. Atiq Rahimi) - a new movie by the director of Earth and Ashes that was presented at the 1st Afghan Film Festival. The Patience Stone is based on Rahimi’s own novel of the same title which won the prestigious Goncourt literary prize. The film was selected as the Afghan entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards.

Carefully selected films give an insight into the rich culture of Afghanistan, but also pose questions about the role of women and girls in society; they uncover child abuse and denounce child labor; they show the economic and spiritual devastation of the country after years of war. Social issues are explored by documentary filmmakers and even authors of animated films.



This year’s festival will be attended by five Afghan filmmakers - including two women - who will meet the audience after the last screening of each day of the event. Among the invited guests is Siddiq Barmak, master of Afghan cinema, winner of the Golden Globe and numerous other awards at international film festivals (including Cannes and London), who actively supports young artists from his country. Razi and Sohaila Mohebi, who usually work together, express in their documentaries the concern about the condition of refugees. Before emigrating to Europe, Razi was assistant to the most prominent Afghan film directors and his own work has been recognized around the world. Mohsen Hossaini, painter and graphic artist, who graduated from film directing at the University of Tehran, will be the only representative of Afghan animation. He has been experimenting with different animation techniques, which is quite an achievement in a country without a technical background in the field. Last but not least among the guests is Sediqa Rezai, film director of the younger generation, teacher by profession, who will present a documentary on child labor.

All guests of the festival live and work outside of Afghanistan from which they were expelled or from which they fled in order to create art with no restraints.


Films will be screened in original language versions with Polish subtitles.
Some of them (listed below) will be shown with English subtitles as well.

In addition, the organizers invite to the pre-opening of the festival which will take place at the Italian Institute of Culture in Krakow on Wednesday, the 9th of March. Film screening and discussion with Razi and Sohaila Mohebi will be held in Italian.

Click HERE to join our event on Facebook.



PROGRAMME:

Thursday, March 10, 2016
8.15 p.m.  MINA WALKING + AFGHAN SHORT FILMS (128’)

AFGHAN FILM CHRONICLE, Afghanistan 1968, 10’ (no subtitles)
DANCE | DANCE
dir. Mohsen Hossaini, Afghanistan 2015, 3’ (no dialogue)
SHELTER | SHELTER
dir. Mohsen Hossaini, Afghanistan 2006, 5’ (with English & Polish subtitles)
MINA WALKING | MINA WALKING
dir. Yosef Baraki, Afghanistan 2015, 110’ (with English & Polish subtitles)
Special guest: Mohsen Hossaini

Friday, March 11, 2016
6.15 p.m.  AFGHAN SHORT FILMS 1 (112’)

AFGHAN FILM CHRONICLE, Afghanistan 1968, 10’ (no subtitles)
PERFUME | PERFUME
dir. Mohsen Hossaini, Afghanistan 2012, 2’ (no dialogue)
BIGANA | BEIGANAH
dir. Siddiq Barmak, Afghanistan 1987, 40’ (with Polish subtitles)
AFGHANISTAN NIGHT STORIES | QASA HAY SHAB AFGHANISTAN
dir. Alka Sadat, Afghanistan 2015, 60’ (with Polish subtitles)

8.15 p.m.  AFGHAN SHORT FILMS 2 (110’)

AFGHAN FILM CHRONICLE, Afghanistan 1968, 10’ (no subtitles)
PAMIR TERRITORY | PAMIR TERRITORY
dir. Malek Shafi'i, Afghanistan 2005, 40’ (with English & Polish subtitles)
DIVAR | DIWAR
dir. Siddiq Barmak, Afghanistan 1983, 8’ (with Polish subtitles)
YOU DO NOT BELONG TO THIS LAND | YOU DO NOT BELONG TO THIS LAND
dir. Hussein Hassani, Afghanistan 2011, 24’ (with English & Polish subtitles)
BRICKS AND DREAMS | DES BRIQUES ET DES RÊVES
dir. Sediqa Rezai, France/Afghanistan 2007, 28’ (with English & Polish subtitles)
Special guests: Siddiq Barmak and Sediqa Rezai

Saturday, March 12, 2016
6.15 p.m.  AFGHAN SHORT FILMS 3 (107’)

AFGHAN FILM CHRONICLE, Afghanistan 1968, 10’ (no subtitles)
THE MARRIAGE CANDIDATE | TALABGAR
dir. Khaleq Alil, Afghanistan 1969, 40’ (with Polish subtitles)
COUNTDOWN | COUNTDOWN
dir. Khadim Hussain Byhname, Afghanistan 2014, 7’ (with English & Polish subtitles)
WHEN YOU HEAR THE BELLS | AU BRUIT DES CLOCHETTES
dir. Chabname Zariab, France 2015, 25’ (with English & Polish subtitles)
FAKIR'S BICYCLES | LES CLOUS DE FAKIR
dir. Hamid Ayubi, France/Afghanistan 2009, 26’ (with English & Polish subtitles)

8.15 p.m.  AFGHAN SHORT FILMS 4 (107’)

AFGHAN FILM CHRONICLE, Afghanistan 1968, 10’ (no subtitles)
HITLER | HITLER
dir. Mohsen Hossaini, Afghanistan 2014, 7’ (with Polish subtitles)
MEMORY BOX | MEMORY BOX
dir. Hamid Alizadeh, Afghanistan 2013, 22’ (with English & Polish subtitles)
INVENTOR MOUSE | INVENTOR MOUSE
dir. Hashmat Taheri, Afghanistan 2014, 16’ (with English & Polish subtitles)
AFGHANISTAN 2014 - II | AFGHANISTAN 2014 - II
dir. Razi Mohebi, Sohaila Mohebi, Italy 2012, 52’ (with Polish subtitles)
Special guests: Razi and Sohaila Mohebi

Sunday, March 13, 2016
6.15 p.m.  AFGHAN SHORT FILMS 5 (107’)

AFGHAN FILM CHRONICLE, Afghanistan 1968, 10’ (no subtitles)
THE EIGHTH FRUIT | 8 SEEN
dir. Fared Taheri, Afghanistan 2012, 11’ (with Polish subtitles)
ROBBER | ROBBER
dir. Khadim Hussain Byhname, Afghanistan 2014, 11’ (with English & Polish subtitles)
PLAYING THE TAAR | PLAYING THE TAAR
dir. Roya Sadat, Afghanistan 2009, 35’ (with English & Polish subtitles)
THE END OF THE EARTH | THE END OF THE EARTH
dir. Malek Shafi'i, Afghanistan 2003, 40’ (with English & Polish subtitles)

8.15 p.m.  THE PATIENCE STONE + AFGHAN SHORT FILMS (115’)

AFGHAN FILM CHRONICLE, Afghanistan 1968, 10’ (no subtitles)
DANCE | DANCE
dir. Mohsen Hossaini, Afghanistan 2015, 3’ (no dialogue)
THE PATIENCE STONE | SYNGUÉ SABOUR. PIERRE DE PATIENCE
dir. Atiq Rahimi, Afghanistan/France 2012, 102’ (with English & Polish subtitles)
The screening will be attended by all the guests of the festival.


TICKETS:
15 PLN (regular)
11 PLN (discount)
Pass (7 screenings): 63 PLN


The curator and main organizer of the festival is Anna Minkiewicz.
Special thanks to Siddiq Barmak for his help and support that made the festival happen.



ABOUT THE GUESTS:

SIDDIQ BARMAK
Master of Afghan cinema who actively supports young artists from his country. Winner of a Golden Globe for the film Osama (2003) and numerous other awards at international film festivals. In 2008 he presented the film Opium War to the audience of the 2nd Afghan Film Festival. Both his films shown at this year's festval are student films made during studies at the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography in Moscow. Original copies were burned by the Taliban so the films will be screened in the form of video materials recorded from TV. From 2015 Siddiq Barmak has been living in France.





MOHSEN HOSSAINI
Versatile artist interested in animation, graphics and painting; graduate of film studies in Tehran. He has been experimenting with different styles of animation, which is quite an achievement in a country without a technical background in the field. The main theme of his films are civilian victims of war, especially children. From 2015 he has been living in Norway.
(photo: from left to right, Siddiq Barmak, Mohsen Hossaini, Malek Shafi'i)



RAZI I SOHAILA MOHEBI

Before emigrating to Europe, Razi was assistant to the most prominent Afghan film directors - Siddiq Barmak (Osama) and Atiq Rahimi (Earth and Ashes) - as well as to an Iranian filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf (At Five in the Afternoon). Seven years ago Razi and Sohaila fled from Afganisthan and settled down in Italy. They usually work together and their poetic films - both documentary and fiction - express the concern about refugees.



SEDIQA REZAI
Film director of the younger generation,  representative of the growing group of women who reach for the camera, teacher by profession. Her first documentary Bricks and Dreams, presented at the 3rd Afghan Film Festival, tells a story of children forced into labor. It was made in the framework of workshops conducted by the French organisation Ateliers Varan. Although the director comes from a liberal family, she didn’t avoid ostracism from her distant relatives. Sediqa Rezai currently lives in France.






ABOUT FILMS:

AFGHAN FILM CHRONICLE, Afghanistan 1968, 10’ (documentary)
- film will be screened with no subtitles
Each screening of the festival will start with a unique newsreel from 1968. It depicts members of the royal family and dignitaries but also cultural and sports events, including a theater performance, a fashion show, a car rally and an air show in Bagram. Episodes of the Afghan Film Chronicle have already been shown at the 2nd Afghan Film Festival in 2008.

AFGANISTAN 2014 - II | AFGHANISTAN 2014 - II
dir. Razi Mohebi, Sohaila Mohebi, Italy 2012, 54’ (documentary)
- film will be screened with Polish subtitles
Reza Mohammadi, an Afghan poet living in London, embarks on a journey from Patras in Greece - the main transit town on the refugee trail - to other European countries. The hero travels along the same route he followed a few years earlier as a refugee. On the journey, he meets his compatriots who also left Afghanistan and talks with them about the future of their country after 2014.

AFGHANISTAN NIGHT STORIES | QASA HAY SHAB AFGHANISTAN
dir. Alka Sadat, Afghanistan 2015, 60’ (documentary)
- film will be screened with Polish and English subtitles

Unique documentary filmed by a young female director which gives insight into professional and private life of Afghan soldiers. Alka Sadat spent two years with the army and managed to record on film soldiers' thoughts, hopes, fears and how they try to cope with the constant presence of death.

BIGANA | BEIGANAH
dir. Siddiq Barmak, Afghanistan 1987, 40’ (fiction)
- film will be screened with Polish subtitles
A short film by the acclaimed Afghan director Siddiq Barmak. A visitor from the West meets the world of a rural community; traditional singing encounters modern technology. All this brings an unexpected result. The film has already been presented at the 2nd Afghan Film Festival in 2008.

BRICKS AND DREAMS | DES BRIQUES ET DES RÊVES
dir. Sediqa Rezai, France/Afghanistan 2007, 28’ (documentary)
- film will be screened with Polish and English subtitles
Abdullah and Madi, boys in their early teens, work in a brick factory as hard as adults. They both grow up in poor families but they don’t abandon their dreams - Abdullah wants to become the head of the brick factory in order to build a solid brick house and Madi simply wants to be rich.

COUNTDOWN | COUNTDOWN
dir. Khadim Hussain Byhname, Afghanistan 2014, 7’ (fiction)
- film will be screened with Polish and English subtitles

A young boy was asked to watch over his little brother in the cradle but he prefers to play with bullets for their father's rifle. Will it end in tragedy?

DANCE | DANCE
dir. Mohsen Hossaini, Afghanistan 2015, 3’ (animation)
- no dialogue
Animated film depicting the idea that it is better to make music and dance together, rather than destroy and kill.

DIVAR | DIWAR
dir. Siddiq Barmak, Afghanistan 1983, 8’ (fiction)
- film will be screened with Polish subtitles
Children try to paint the word "PAIX" (peace) on a wall. A soldier forbids them to do so but his intervention turns out to be useless - the kids will not give up. The first short film by Siddiq Barmak, made at the film school in Moscow. The film has already been presented at the 2nd Afghan Film Festival in 2008.

THE EIGHTH FRUIT | 8 SEEN
dir. Fared Taheri, Afghanistan 2012, 11’ (fiction)
- film will be screened with Polish subtitles
On the New Year's Eve a shoeshine boy speaks to the conscience of a corrupt cop and brings him back to the right path.

THE END OF THE EARTH | THE END OF THE EARTH
dir. Malek Shafi'i, Afghanistan 2003, 40’ (documentary)
- film will be screened with Polish and English subtitles
Documentary on Afghan refugees in Europe after 9/11 and one of the first films by Malek Shafi'i - Afghan director, organizer of film festivals and human rights activist. The documentary is particularly interesting today when Europe is experiencing one of the largest refugee crises in history.

FAKIR'S BICYCLES | LES CLOUS DE FAKIR
dir. Hamid Ayubi, France/Afghanistan 2009, 26’ (documentary)
- film will be screened with Polish and English subtitles

An unemployed teacher earns a living by repairing bicycles on a bridge in the center of Kabul. The man has two children who help him whenever they have some spare time after school. Everyday, the river of people - both random passers-by and befriended clients - flows past the workshop.

HITLER | HITLER
dir. Mohsen Hossaini, Afghanistan 2014, 7’ (animation)
- film will be screened with Polish subtitles
The extermination of worms has been carried on since centuries, supervised by successive dictators. One day, a worm-historian decides to write down this tragic story for his children and future generations.

INVENTOR MOUSE | INVENTOR MOUSE
dir. Hashmat Taheri, Afghanistan 2014, 16’ (fiction)
- film will be screened with Polish and English subtitles
Father and son repair bikes at the empty road over a creek. The only lighting they have is a flashlight on weak batteries. The boy has an idea how to improve their work.

THE MARRIAGE CANDIDATE | TALABGAR
dir. Khaleq Alil, Afghanistan 1969, 40’ (fiction)
- film will be screened with Polish subtitles

A cynical young man claims to be the son of a respectable rich man in order to marry into a well-to-do modern Kabul family. The film shows the influence of Western culture on Afghan society: the way they dress, arrange their houses or spend the leisure time. The film has already been presented at the 2nd Afghan Film Festival in 2008.

MEMORY BOX | MEMORY BOX
dir. Hamid Alizadeh, Afghanistan 2013, 22’ (documentary)
- film will be screened with Polish and English subtitles
The Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organisation carries out projects in the field of transitional justice. One of them involved creation of the so-called memory boxes. Families of victims of war prepared boxes of personal mementos of the dead. Work on the projects, as well as a public exhibition of the boxes, helped people to deal with injustice of war and impunity of perpetrators.

MINA WALKING | MINA WALKING
dir. Yosef Baraki, Afghanistan 2015, 110’ (fiction)
- film will be screened with Polish and English subtitles

Mina, a girl from Kabul, takes care of her father who is a drug addict and infirm grandfather. She earns a living for all three of them but she gains no respect from her male relatives. In addition, Mina secretly attends school classes. That leads to an unexpected turn in her life. The film was showered with awards (including the Audience Award at the Tofifest IFF in Torun) and entered the official selection of the Berlin Film Festival last year.

THE PATIENCE STONE | SYNGUÉ SABOUR. PIERRE DE PATIENCE
dir. Atiq Rahimi, Afghanistan/France 2012, 102’ (fiction)
- film will be screened with Polish and English subtitles

A country torn by war, perhaps Afghanistan. A young, 30-year-old woman looks after her elderly injured husband. The man is paralyzed due to a gunshot wound in the neck. One day, the woman decides to tell her husband about feelings that she has been suppressing for ten years of marriage. The film is based on Rahimi’s own novel of the same title which won the prestigious Goncourt literary prize. It was selected as the Afghan entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards. The director's earlier film, Earth and Ashes, was presented at the 1st Afghan Film Festival in 2007.

PAMIR TERRITORY | PAMIR TERRITORY
dir. Malek Shafi'i, Afghanistan 2005, 40’ (documentary)
- film will be screened with Polish and English subtitles
Documentary about Ismaili minority people of Pamir, a region of Afghanistan, made by Malek Shafi'i - Afghan director, organizer of film festivals and human rights activist.

PERFUME | PERFUME
dir. Mohsen Hossaini, Afghanistan 2012, 2’ (animation)
- no dialogue

Animated film which shows that the press and the public opinion may have more power than bullets...

PLAYING THE TAAR | PLAYING THE TAAR
dir. Roya Sadat, Afghanistan 2009, 35’ (fiction)
- film will be screened with Polish and English subtitles

Ay Nabaat is a 17 year-old girl from the Turkmen ethnic minority in Afghanistan. She has been weaving carpets at her home since her childhood. Her entire life is interlocked to carpet strings and colours. Her father is involved in an old and bloody hostility with another ethnic group which has lasted for years. In order to end this hostility, he decides to marry Ay Nabaat to a man who already has three wives. The director's first film, Three Dots, was presented at the 2nd Afghan Film Festival in 2008.

ROBBER | ROBBER
dir. Khadim Hussain Byhname, Afghanistan 2014, 11’ (fiction)
- film will be screened with Polish and English subtitles

A young girl fights with her elder brother for her rights. Played with great simplicity, a universal story about gender roles.

SHELTER | SHELTER
dir. Mohsen Hossaini, Afghanistan 2006, 5’ (animation)
- film will be screened with Polish and English subtitles
Boy and bird support each other during the war. The film has already been presented at the 2nd Afghan Film Festival in 2008.

WHEN YOU HEAR THE BELLS | AU BRUIT DES CLOCHETTES
dir. Chabname Zariab, France 2015, 25’ (fiction)
- film will be screened with Polish and English subtitles

A story of young boys, exploited by their owners. Official selection - Angers film festival 2016.

YOU DO NOT BELONG TO THIS LAND | YOU DO NOT BELONG TO THIS LAND
dir. Hussein Hassani, Afghanistan 2011, 24’ (fiction)
- film will be screened with Polish and English subtitles
No one in Iran wants to legally hire an Afghan refugee who is an experienced tailor. Overwhelmed by bureaucracy and desperate because of unemployment, the man invests his savings in buying a fake Iranian passport. The hero's experience is universal and shared by refugees all around the world.



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