Afghan Film Festival 2009
Joy Of Madness Joy Of Madness
Joy Of Madness and The Boy Who Plays On The Buddhas Of Bamiyan
Afghan Star (Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Havana Marking), Official Site
Four hopefuls compete to become pop idols in post-Taliban Afghanistan.
The Boy Who Plays On The Buddhas Of Bamiyan (Country: UK; Year: 2004; Director: Phil Grabsky), Official Site, Trailer
An optimistic documentary following a refugee family who live in a cave besides the ruins of the giant Buddha statues blown up by the Taliban.
Beauty Academy (The Beauty Academy of Kabul) (Country: US; Year: 2004; Director: Liz Mermin)
This documentary follows a group of women from America - some of them ethnically Afghan - visiting post-Taliban Afghanistan to set up a beauty salon with women who risked their lives to maintain one illegally before them.
Buddha Collapsed Out Of Shame (Buda as sharm foru rikht) (Country: Iran; Year: 2007; Director: Hana Makhmalbaf; Writer: Marzieh Makhmalbaf; Stars: Nikbakht Noruz, Abbas Alijome, Abdolali Hoseinali), Official Site
A little girl's attempt to go to school reveals the plight of many in modern Afghanistan.
Cabal In Kabul (Cabale à Kaboul) (Country: Belgium; Year: 2006; Director: Dan Alexe; Stars: Isaac Lévy, Zabulon Simantov)
A documentary about life in Afghanistan.
Cabal In Kabul Cabal In Kabul
Cabal In Kabul and Buddha Collapsed Out Of Shame
Earth And Ashes (Khakestar-o-khak) (Country: Afghanistan, France; Year: 2004; Director: Atiq Rahimi; Writer: Kambuzia Partovi, based on the book by Atiq Rahimi.; Stars: Abdul Ghani, Jawan Mard Homayoun)
After his family is killed in a bomb attack, an elderly man and his now deaf grandson walk the long miles to the coal mine where his son works to tell him what has happened.
In This World (Country: UK; Year: 2002; Director: Michael Winterbottom; Writer: Tony Grisoni; Stars: Jamal Udin Torabi, Enayatullah, Imran Paracha, Hiddayatullah, Jamau)
Docudramatic journey of two Afghan refugees from the Pakistan border to London.
Joy Of Madness (Country: Iran; Year: 2003; Director: Hana Makhmalbaf; Writer: Hana Makhmalbaf)
Fourteen-year-old Iranian girl shoots a documentary about the making of a film in Afghanistan.
Kabuli Kid (Country: France, Afghanistan; Year: 2008; Director: Barmak Akram; Writer: Barmak Akram; Stars: Hadji Gul, Valéry Schatz, Amélie Glenn, Mohammad Chafi Sahel, Helena Alam, Messi Gul, Saleha Khan Gul, Rohina Gul, Mariam Hakimi, Mustafa Haidari)
A Kabul taxi driver finds himself looking after an abandoned baby.
Kandahar (Safar E Ghandehar) (Country: Iran; Year: 2001; Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaf; Writer: Mohsen Makhmalbaf; Stars: Niloufar Pazira, Hassan Tantai, Sadou Teymouri, Hayatala Hakimi)
A woman returns to Afghanistan to save her suicidal sister.
In This World In This World
In This World and Kandahar
Opium War (Country: South Korea, Afghanistan; Year: 2008; Director: Siddiq Barmak; Writer: Siddiq Barmak; Stars: Peter Bussian, Joe Suba, Fawad Samani, Jawanmard Paiez, Marina Golbahari, Hamid Hozouri)
Wounded and lost in the Afghan desert, two US soldiers fear for their lives until they are adopted by a community of locals living in an abandoned tank.
Osama (Country: Afghanistan, Netherlands, Japan, Ireland, Iran; Year: 2003; Director: Siddiq Barmak; Writer: Siddiq Barmak; Stars: Marina Golbahari, Arif Herati, Zubaida Sahar, Mohamad Nader Khadjeh, Mohamad Haref Harati), Official Site
With no surviving male relatives in a country where, thanks to the Taliban, a woman may not leave the house without a man to escort her, a teenage girl is forced to disguise herself as a boy in order to support her family.
Stray Dogs (Sag-haye Velgard) (Country: Iran, France; Year: 2004; Director: Marzieh Makhmalbaf; Writer: Marzieh Makhmalbaf; Stars: Gol-Ghotai, Zahed, Agheleh Rezaie, Sohrab Akbari, Jamil Ghanazideh, Agheleh Shamsollah, Razeddin Sayyar, Maydeh Gol)
Two orphaned children struggle to cope with life in Afghanistan after the Taliban.
Voice Of The Moon (Afghan Voices) (Country: UK, Afghanistan; Director: Richard Stanley)
A documentary cataloguing the Russian invasion of Afghanistan.
News

59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground

More news and features

Playing Now

Eye For Film continues to support festivals both locally and across the world. At the moment, we're covering:

Human Rights Watch Film Festival
Showcase of films with a humanitarian focus

Flare

South by Southwest

New York's Rendez-Vous With French Cinema
Celebration of Gallic cinema

Glasgow Film Festival
The 20th anniversary edition of Scotland's liveliest film festival

In the Archive


Archive of festival coverage.

Daily diary and reviews from 2005-2018.

Coverage of the lynchpin German festival.