KABUL - An apple from Paradise is an award winning film on the frantic search of a beleaguered father to find his son, who is a madressa student and has been tasked by his masters to commit a suicide attack against the enemies of religion. Homayon Morowat, a 46 year old Afghan filmmaker, took the inspiration for this film from the true stories in Afghanistan.

“I don’t like to film war scenes; rather I try to reflect the outcomes of conflict on human society,” Homayon told UNAMA.

“In my short story film, An apple from Paradise, I have tried to present the sentimental dimensions of this phenomenon of suicide attacks which has discomforted the entire society and caused many human tragedies,” he added.

The film was one of the 50 films showcased in the week-long festival which began in Kabul on 7 October. In addition to the 32 films from Afghanistan, human rights films from 18 other countries also competed in the festival which was organized by the Afghanistan Cinema Club and BASA Films, with international partners including Movies That Matters and the United Nations.

The Founder and Executive Director of Festival, Malek Shafi’I, said the objective of festival was not only to appreciate and encourage national and international filmmakers, but to remind a broader audience that human rights is an international issue and require a joint effort by all nations to mitigate human suffering.

“Following decades of spending millions of dollars, the notion of human rights has only been reflected by laws created through political reactions. These in turn caused confusion about the concept of justice in the public eye,” said Malek.

He added that the festival debated human rights with different approach, bringing socio-cultural issues to the surface in order to “create discussion devoid of political aspects.”

Another key feature of the festival was its inauguration with screening The Accordion, a film by Jaffar Panahi, who was sentenced to six years of prison in March 2010 by the Iranian Government for his role in protests against the Iranian presidential elections in 2009. Panahi’s films are banned in Iran and he has is barred for 20 years from shooting movies and writing scripts there. His film was part of a long feature project supported by the United Nations, gathering seven international directors around Article 18 of the ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ that reads: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thoughts, conscience and religion”.

Afghan women filmmakers had also actively participated in the festival. Seven of the 32 Afghan human rights films were directed by the women.

“From a very early age, I wanted to become a filmmaker so that I reflect the realities of my society,” said Alka Sadaat, a female Afghan filmmaker from Herat who produced a documentary film on Maria Bashir, the first woman provincial attorney in Afghanistan.

“Women are always shown weak and incapable in Afghan media. I have tried to depict the strength of women by showing a powerful woman of our society in my film, Dar Dehkaday Ki Naqisul Aqalam Menaman, or Half Value Life,” she added.

Another  young  female  filmmaker,  Karima Hasanzadah, had directed a short film about a pregnant kuchi or nomad woman who brings a huge pile of thorns on her back while going through intolerable pain and the moment she reaches her tent, gives birth to a baby girl. When her husband learns that new born baby  is  a girl and not the son he wanted, he leaves both of them for many
years.  The mother raises her daughter alone, and she becomes a young woman who helps her mother in return.

Afghan  women  filmmakers also confront severe issues when they make films. Both  Karima  and  Alka  Sadaat  shared  with  UNAMA  some  of  their bleak experiences  as  women filmmakers in Afghanistan. “I don’t have any problem in  my  family but the biggest problem is in our society. Many people don’t like women to work, particularly when they have camera in hand because they
have a very bad imagination of filmmaking,” said Karima.

“When  I  go  out for shooting a film, people think I work for Americans or for  a  foreign  organization. Few days ago I was shooting near the door of someone,  he came out and insulted me and said that I was an infidel,” said Alka Sadaat.

The   festival  also  provided  tremendous  learning  opportunity  for  the filmmakers and film students through  its daily workshops, which were aimed at enhancing the knowledge  of  young  Afghan  filmmakers by encouraging them to reflect the human rights issues of the society in their films.

"In only two and a half hours, 25 film Afghan students from the Kabul Faculty of Fine Arts turned up to develop a couple of frameworks for Afghan soap opera's incorporating human rights issues. When I was a teacher of script-writing many many years ago, we would have ten weeks to make into learn how to be a soap writer... To my surprise and delight three of the five groups came up with brilliant outlines that included complicated family structures, brilliant locations and very clever inter-weaving at least five serious human rights issues Afghan children are currently facing, such as hard labour, sexual abuse and drug abuse. And that in only 40 minutes of brainstorming. Amazing talent! It made me want to be a soap writer again, instead of a child protection advisor in the UN," Dee Brillenburg Wurth, Child Protection Advisor to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, and also a former film and soap opera scriptwriter.

Brillenburg gave a workshop on Education and Entertainment focused on how to reach children and youth with human rights messages through soap operas. 

“The workshops were held daily  during  the  course  of  festival  and  facilitated by international filmmakers so that the participants benefit from their experiences in other parts of the world,” Malek Shafi’i, the Director of Festival mentioned.

The  film screening took place at different places such as French Institute for Afghanistan, Cinema Park and the United Nations compound in Kabul city.

UNAMA  Television  Producer  Ariadna  Alvarado and a Jury member of the Festival worked closely with  the  festival organizers to arrange the screenings at the UN compound.

“Most  UN  employees, diplomats, and other international filmgoers cannot  travel freely in the city because of security reasons and restrictions.  We wanted  to bring the films and the film makers here to start a dialogue about their storytelling style, their artistic expressions and visions within a Human Rights context. We wanted to see how they see themselves to better understand them”

She  added  that the festival was an opportunity to better address the UN’s work,  “How can we work for human rights without understanding what Afghans think about the issues that are affecting them directly? ”

"Also, being part of the jury gave me the opportunity to see an amazing, inspiring collection of the work that has been done by the new generation of film makers. I felt honored to be part of the cinematography history in the making. I had to see all the films, and unless you're on the jury, you just get to see a small percentage and this film competition had to do with the democratization of Human Rights film making in this country. Afghans film makers are in a much bigger boat than they used to be. Not only Afghan films, but films from all over the world were competing and for me it was incredible to see and to witness how much good stuff is being done and coming in here in Afghanistan."

In Mazar-e-Sharif, the festival itself faced human rights restrictions when it  was  unable to show some of the movies as scheduled. Student protesters at the Sharia Department of Balkh University objected to the content of two of  the movies Qaiq Hai Kaghaz” or Paper Boats, and Marg Ba Kamera or Death to Camera.

At  the  conclusion  of festival on 7 October, cash prizes and certificates were  given  to  the  best  long  and  short  fiction films, documentaries, animations,   actress   and   special   jury  prizes  to  both  Afghan  and international films.

By UNAMA Kabul