Introducing: Kabul Jan
20 December 2020
Changing perceptions is the driving force behind the work of Kabul-based filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat. “I do believe cinema can be a mirror, especially in Afghanistan's case,” she says. “Since we do not have any cinema industry, we've never seen ourselves on the big screen. And if we do, it’s been through the eyes of outsiders.”
Holding up a mirror is the task of Sadat’s pentalogy – a monumental five-part series – based on an autobiographical text written by her friend and collaborator Anwar Hashimi. Wolf and Sheep, the first part, won the top prize in the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs section at Cannes 2016, and the second part The Orphanage was screened in the same section in 2019. Both were also selected for IFFR in 2017 and 2020. Sadat is renowned for being the youngest ever director selected for the Cinéfondation Residency at Cannes in 2010 when she was only 20 years old.
After delighting audiences with a colourful, Bollywood-infused, although ultimately tragic, evocation of Afghanistan in the 1970s with The Orphanage, she is currently in development of the next in the series – the romantic comedy Kabul Jan. Far from the gruelling war-torn depictions of Afghanistan usually found in cinema, these films show the country from a new perspective.
“I was always thinking that the image of Afghanistan needs to be corrected for the international audience but I didn't notice that the same thing should be done for the Afghan audience too,” says the director. This realisation came to her after the screening of The Orphanage on the opening night of the I-Khanom cinema in Kabul – a new safe space for cinema designed to rejuvenate film-culture in the city after decades of repression. The audience clearly enjoyed the film but were troubled by the honesty with which Sadat had portrayed Afghan culture.
“The majority of the Afghan audiences and filmmakers think cinema should be anything except reality. We should speak respectfully and it's the mission of the filmmaker to show the beauty of Afghanistan and the Afghan people to the world. I am saying to them: ‘No, Thank you!’”
Sadat has a close relationship with IFFR, after The Orphanage received development support from the Hubert Bals Fund before it screened at IFFR 2020. Her latest project also received development support and this year looks for international collaborators at CineMart. Using the co-production model whilst basing the film in local realities is Sadat’s strategy for shifting perceptions.
“I think we can kill two birds with one stone. Making films about Afghanistan's issues with international funds and co-productions will change people's perception of Afghanistan in the long term and hopefully inspire other Afghan filmmakers to join the club.”
Although based on Hasimi’s autobiography, there is clearly much of herself in these films. Kabul Jan, based on the relationship between Qodrat and a young camera operator Naru, might be subtle evidence of this. “My own observations about Afghanistan are all over my works. I do not hesitate to involve myself in the middle of my friend's text. I am basically taking his story and combining that with mine and making a new product in a way.”
Whether or not Kabul’s cinema culture will continue its rejuvenation despite the wealth of challenges, and what role Sadat has to play in all this, is still hard to tell. But, much like her films, she feels positive: “I am a naive optimist. I do believe in change. I think it will come and I see myself as part of that. And seriously, I think Afghanistan needs naive optimists to think like that, you know?”
