Kabul, Between Prayers

When we see 23-year-old Samim loading a gun on a prayer mat it pretty much encapsulates the key drivers of his life. A part-time Taliban soldier, when he isn’t working on his farm, he wants “to bring Sharia Law to the entire world”. He also, as Aboozar Amini’s documentary shows, wants to look cool whenever possible, something that makes the tiny drop of power he has as a Taliban all the more attractive.

If there’s one person in Samim’s life who definitely thinks he is cool, it’s his 14-year-old brother Rafi, who forms the other half of this dual portrait that highlights the ongoing incidental tragedies of life in Afghanistan while still retaining empathy for the people caught up in the situation.

Rafi is a sweet-natured soul but we see how playfulness runs very close to threat in this environment in sequences that show him playing with his younger brother Elias or his friends. Kabul, Between Prayers, the second in an intended trilogy by Amini, which began with Kabul, City In The Wind, is above all, a feat of patience, not least because the director cannot travel from the Netherlands, where he is now based, so worked remotely on the preparation and shooting with his cinematographer Ali Agha Oktay Khan.

While much of the film is observational, there are also striking segments direct to the camera, which prove to be every bit as revealing. Rafi is adept at memorising passages of the Qur’an and doesn’t hesitate when asked to recite his favourite bit. When probed further, however, he reveals he has chosen it “because it has a nice rhyme to it” and that, not only does he not know what it means, there is no part of the Qur’an that he understands.

This highlights a truth about a country where unquestioning acceptance is becoming entrenched in certain families – recalling Talal Derki’s similarly themed Syrian documentary Of Fathers And Sons (2017). But while Amini draws attention to this, it is with a tone of melancholy at the state of affairs rather than in a bid to be judgemental. The use of the word “between” in the film’s title is appropriate, since Samim and Rafi are, in many ways, trapped.

When Rafi is questioned about things – including his first crush – on camera, patience comes into play again. It’s the moments between his answers that are often most revealing, as we see flashes of embarrassment, cheekiness and confusion flit across his face. By giving him some space to answer, rather than quickly moving on, often more information is volunteered.

We can also see a paradoxical conflict raging within Samim, whose dreams revolve around suicide missions and yet who also suggests it’s important to “always be kind to people” and practises his English in his off hours. Amini also lets the situation in the wider world creep in, from a woman stopped in a taxi at night, to the faces of your girls on the street in poor weather who would, in other times, have been in school. Beyond attentive editing from Neel Cockx, Catalin Cristutiu and Annelotte Medema, which juxtaposes the various facets of Samim and Rafi’s life, the sound design from Ensieh Layla Maleki is also notable, whether its allowing whispered prayers to flow over footage or muting the sound at a key moment to add focus. A melancholic portrait of a generation of men caught between a rock and a hard place.

Reviewed on: 12 Sep 2025