Afghan '72

Pierre Focioli-Conti's film is amazingly brief or, at least, amazing and brief. Opening with the stereotypical filmic artifact of a spinning countdown it just about justifies its inclusion because it's inspired by old film, footage Pierre's father took, from an expedition or holiday in Afghanistan in 1972.

This is striking stuff - a man in the flush of youth "conquering landscapes that have now become the epitome of danger". On horseback, pool-side, streets, a Bhudda of Bamayan shot a year or so before the World Trade Center opened.

It feels like a piece of a larger whole, an incomplete one, but not unsatisfyingly so. It gives somewhat of a sense of place, and time, but more of a sense of difference than identity. It's a bit "a long time ago" and "far, far away", but it's more a notion of an ur-past - they do things differently there and all that, and Afghan '72 is certainly different.