An interview with Siddiq Barmak or how the Taliban destroyed Afghan cinema

This is a totally ancient draft…
Siddiq Barmak, without exaggerating too much, basically is Afghan cinema nowadays. Almost any Afghan film project intended for cinema is somehow associated with him. In the interview he talks about his award-winning film Osama (which I reviewed in April), but he also says a lot of stuff about the Taliban. [...]

Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi - the politics of present day Afghanistan

{FILM DIARY}
Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi (USA, 2009)
Seen: Sunday, 18th October 2009 (cinema, WFF)
Runtime: 84′
Director: Ian Olds
Plot: (from imdb)
In 2007, the Taliban kidnapped 24-year-old Ajmal Naqshbandi and an Italian journalist. Naqshbandi was one of Afghanistan’s best “fixers” — someone hired by foreign journalists to facilitate, translate, and gain access for their stories.
Trailer

Impressions In Short
There [...]

Today is the International Day of Peace! :)

The Day After Peace is a film that had a huge impact on me. Ever since I watched it (which was in October last year), I promised myself that I would somehow support the efforts of Peace Day.
The 21st of September is a very special day because it aims to be a day of global [...]

The Taliban targets voters after the polls

Sometimes, when I read about the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, I cannot help but think it is some weird Monty Python kind of reality, even if what I’m reading is very gruesome. Some of the rules and customs are just that absurd.
This is the first time I’ve had that feeling when watching a video, even [...]

Abdullah in the lead?

Apparently, both Abdullah and Karzai are saying the results so far have them in the lead. Here’s a short interview with Abdullah:

Elections and Little Kabul

Little Kabul is an area in Fremont, California, which is known under that name because of its sizeable Afghan population. Below is a report on how Afghan women there feel about the elections.

The Pashtun vote and how it may turn the elections in Karzai’s favour

There’s a lot of reports now about how ethnic divides may decide results (just saw one about the Hazara community, but thought it was badly done, so I’m not linking :]). Here’s one about how Karzai is set to get the Pashtun vote:

Fraud in Afghan elections

A report about why election results are probably not going to be accurate…

Afghan elections and the future of the war on the Taliban

Afghan elections will take place on the 20th of August, the Taliban are naturally already trying to use force to stop people from voting. I wonder if, ironically, their call to boycott elections isn’t why the two main contenders are both very moderate and eloquent people. If Taliban supporters were voting that might not be [...]

Minors in Guantanamo

This is the story of an Afghan boy who was imprisoned by US authorities at the age of 12. He is still in Guantanamo today. While most of the cases of prisoners who were underage at the time of capture have been resolved by now, his was not the only such case.