Where Fiction and Reality Meet | A Decade of Afghan Cinema

Martin Gerner offers a stirring overview of contemporary film in Afghanistan. It should be no surprise that young Afghans are seeking to understand and explain their society both to themselves and the world.

‘Most of the people in the West think about Afghanistan as a country where people kill each other in the name of Islam,’ says Ali Husseini, who is part of a collective of young Kabul filmmakers, explaining how foreign films can motivate the indigenous film-maker. ‘You just need to watch any of the Hollywood movies. We as Afghans are usually portrayed as terrorists with long beards in them. But we come from the middle of this society, and we want to show that we as well have a global perspective on things, just like in Germany or in the United States. What we want to show are stories where we speak about our lives, stories about earning money and trying to make a living, with parents raising their children and trying to give them a better future.’

Click here to see video shorts featured on Afghanistan 101.