Bringing together rarely seen films from Afghanistan’s cinematic archive with contemporary works, this free festival explores the country through the eyes of its filmmakers at home and across the diaspora.
From documentary to fiction, classical to contemporary cinema, the programme connects past and present to reveal Afghanistan’s changing landscapes, histories and experiences from an insider perspective. The programme includes The Forbidden Reel, a documentary exploring Afghanistan’s extraordinary cinematic history and House of History, a stark record of Kabul during the Afghan Civil War. Writing Hawa and Shahrbanoo Sadat’s No Good Men complete the programme. Selected screenings will be followed by conversations with filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat and members of the Afghan Visual Arts and History (AVAH) collective, including Barry Sadid.
Please note that tickets are free and should be booked in advance for each screening.
Screenings will be followed by discussions in English, Persian, and Pashto.
The festival is curated by Dr Chihab El Khachab, Associate Professor in Visual Anthropology, Fellow of Wolfson College and Parwana Haydar, a filmmaker and curator working with the AVAH collective.
AVAH is a transnational arts collective founded in 2019 by artists and artworkers from Afghanistan to research, contextualise, and share the visual arts of Afghanistan.
Programme:
The day begins with a welcome at 9am, with scheduled breaks and refreshments available throughout the day.
9:30 am -11:30 am: The Forbidden Reel (Ariel Nasr, 2019)
12:00 pm -1:00 pm: House of History (Qadir Taheri, 1996), followed by Afghan Guerilla films research presented by Barry Sadid (AVAH) and excerpts of The Passage (Hossein Danesh, 1997)
2:00 - 4:00 pm: Writing Hawa (Najiba Noori, 2024), followed by AVAH collective roundtable discussion
4:30 pm -7:00 pm: No Good Men (Shahrbanoo Sadat, 2026), followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker.
