News

Following the retaking of Afghanistan by the Taliban, in another tragic chapter in the country’s history, Roya Sadat and her husband and frequent collaborator Aziz Deildar, found themselves escaping the country, leaving almost everything behind, and eventually finding solace in the US. As such, it was quite a pleasure to learn that they managed to shoot another movie, with “Sima’s Song” premiering in Tokyo International Film Festival.

Sima’s Song is screening at Tokyo International Film Festival

The story is set in Afghanistan in 1978, during the transition to socialism, when the Russian influence in the country was quite intense, but also something else was starting to move within the government circles. Two girls, rich idealist and communist Suraya and poor Muslim Soraya manage to retain a loving friendship in the midst of the following invasion by the Soviet Union and the rise of an anti-Soviet armed group. While the former insists on women’s freedom,...

Los Angeles, Nov 27 (Ians) Leena Alam, one of Afghanistan’s best-known actresses, is in character as she explains facing an unthinkable choice, reports ‘Variety’. “Who would know better than me how dangerous it is to be an actress with the Taliban? You cannot inflict me with one more drop of fear than I already have,” […]...

Leena Alam, one of Afghanistan’s best-known actresses, is in character as she explains facing an unthinkable choice.

“Who would know better than me how dangerous it is to be a woman actress with the Taliban? You cannot inflict me with one more drop of fear than I already have,” says the California-based Alam as part of a virtual performance of a monologue for the LA Writers Center.

“You offer me death and my children, or life without them? What would you do? I will go home.” Tearfully, Alam, who starred in popular shows such as feminist drama “Shereen,” rocks back and forth on Zoom in front of a backdrop of an airport waiting room with signs for Paris.

The monologue was spun from an interview with her close friend and former co-star Sabera Sadat, another of Afghanistan’s top thespians. Earlier this month, in Kabul, Sadat was offered a rare ticket to France,...

Instead of simply writing our wishes to all our readers, for 2021 we decided to ask our friends to do so.

Mattie Do, Joko Anwar, Taku Tsuboi, Indrasis Acharya, Leena Alam, Takeshi Kushida, Bront Palarae, Torico, Isabel Sandoval, Ryo Katayama, Anthony Chen, Roya Sadat, Kazutaka Watanabe, Akio Fujimoto, Min Siu Goh, Scott C. Hillyard, Gerald Chew, Amy Cheng, Ronny Sen, Kenichi Ugana, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, Park Jung Bum, Kim Min-jae, Shogen, Atsushi Funahashi, Jero Yun, Shuna Iijima and Khavn responded to our call. Check out their wishes...

Leena Alam is an award winning Afghan film and Tv actress and a Human rights activist. She started her acting career in 1998 with films as “In a Foreign Land”, “Loori” and a few more made by the Afghan diaspora filmmakers in the Us. She made her debut in Afghanistan in Barmak Akram’s 2008 “Kabuli Kid”, and went on to do “Soil and Cora”l, “Ahwal e Darya”, “A Letter to the President” and a few short films to help young rising film makers in Afghanistan. She is mostly known to have worked in subjects that speaks on Child Marriage, Gender Equality, Women’s Right and Social Conflicts. Her notable work on these subjects are “Shereen” The struggle of a powerful woman, a taboo-smashing feminist TV drama, and “The Killing of Farkhunda” a re-enactment of the killing of a 27-year-old Afghan woman falsely accused of burning a copy of the Quran.

The first film by a woman after the fall of the Taliban regime, and Afghanistan’s submission for the foreign-language Oscar, is an extremely pointy production that deals with the inconsistencies of the Afghan legal system, which lingers between Islamic, statutory and customary rules, as it presents the issues women face in the country, through a genuinely feminist view.

A Letter to the President screened at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian cinema

The film revolves around Soraya, a mother of two, who tries to balance her career as the head of the Kabul Crime Division and her life as the wife of a very rich but on the verge of alcoholism husband, who, additionally, is dominated by his gangster father. The already crumbling balance ends when Soraya decides to save a woman who is being accused of adultery and is actually sentenced to death by the village elders, and...

The first film by a woman after the fall of the Taliban regime, and Afghanistan’s submission for the foreign-language Oscar, is an extremely pointy production that deals with the inconsistencies of the Afghan legal system, which lingers between Islamic, statutory and customary rules, as it presents the issues women face in the country, through a genuinely feminist view.

“A Letter to a President” is screening at Aperture: Asia & Pacific Film Festival

The film revolves around Soraya, a mother of two, who tries to balance her career as the head of the Kabul Crime Division and her life as the wife of a very rich but on the verge of alcoholism husband, who, additionally, is dominated by his gangster father. The already crumbling balance ends when Soraya decides to save a woman who is being accused of adultery and is actually sentenced to death by the village elders, and in...

Afghanistan has selected Roya Sadat's drama A Letter to the President as its candidate for the best foreign-language film race at the Oscars.

A look at the harsh realities facing women in today's Afghanistan, the film follows Soraya (Leena Alam) a lowly female public official who struggles to observe modern laws when confronted with ancient tribal rules that condemn another woman to a brutal punishment. Finding herself on the wrong side of the law after being arrested for her efforts, her only hope of redemption is through a direct written appeal to the president.

Dramatic tension builds as Soraya finds...

With the world caught in a time and place allowing it to quickly judge so much on so little, tiny human stories like Black Kite prove to be their most potent. Ask Americans about the Taliban and some will probably say the term is synonymous with Isis, their lazy round-up of terrorist labels from the Middle East ultimately falling under the unfortunate umbrella of Islam at-large. It’s a real shame because this means that too many of us don’t know anything of the beautiful cultures countries like Iran, Iraq, or Afghanistan (where the Taliban originates) possessed and continue to possess today. They only see death, beheadings, and buzz terms like Sharia law because the media and government seek to feed us easy fear rather than educate sprawling complexities.

Like the title says, writer/director Tarique Qayumi’s latest is about kites — but not as you know them. While toys for children,...

For his second feature film, refugee-turned-filmmaker Tarique Qayumi is looking to shed a different sort of a light on a changing Afghanistan. “Black Kite” follows Arian, who adores kites, but whose talent is curtailed when the Taliban take power and ban kite flying. As his young daughter Seema’s childhood seems to be coming to an end, Arian risks it all to find and fly kites alongside her.

Read More:tiff Reveals Full Canadian Lineup, Including ‘Alias Grace’ Series Premiere and Restored Classics

The Tiff premiere is a historical drama that blends mediums — including animation, documentary, and live action — to weave a stirring narrative about a man’s love of kite flying (and his child) as he yearns for freedom that seems so very far away.

“Black Kite” stars two of Afghanistan’s biggest stars, Haji Gul and Leena Alam, along with non-actors Zahra Nasim and Hamid Noorzay.

Read More:tiff’s...