AFGHANISTAN: In 2021, Doclisboa dedicated one of its programme blocks to the topic of women in the patriarchal society of Afghanistan. While the two films screened, Orchestra from the Land of Silence (2020) and Oh Dear Sara (2021), differ in many ways, their chilling message takes on a particularly intense dimension given the current situation in the Middle East.
INTERVIEW: Slovak director Lucie Kašová reveals her relationship to the subjects of both documentaries and shares her personal stance on the socio-political changes that have shaped the situation in Afghanistan in recent months.
CONFLICT: The story of a Romanian soldier in the Afghan war and that of a young girl who found herself in the wrong place, at the wrong time.
WOMEN OF EUROPE: Sweden’s former Foreign and Vice Prime Minister Margot Wallström believes we currently live in a world of autocrats, where Nordic welfare values have poor conditions.
CINEMA: Marked by violence and oppression, Afghanistan’s recent history, Ariel Nasr’s documentary shows the invaluable nature of cinema.
MIGRANTS: The Fazili family shoots their perilous journey from Afghanistan through the Balkan migration route to an uncertain future on three mobile phones.
RUSSIA: Meeting Gorbachev is an intimate and engaging portrait of the man who unwittingly prompted the collapse of the Soviet Union.
CONFLICT: A rare insight into how the sons of the al-Nusra warriors in the Idlib Governorate of Syria are being raised to become the next generation of jihadists.
EURODOK: Two young men are waiting to be called to action as suicide bombers in Syria. Pål Refsdal’s recent documentary depicts a surprisingly intimate portrait.
Davis Guggenheim’s documentary portrait does not contain much new information, but enables us to get to know the activist, teenager and phenomenon that is Malala Yousafzai.
Pål Refsdal drew a logical conclusion from the state of contemporary war reporting: NATO military forces will not allow reporters to wander about in the theatre of war, jump on their helicopters and armoured personnel carriers and ride to the latest battle, as the U.S. did in Vietnam.
Filmed shortly after the fall of the Taliban, Iranian actress and documentary filmmaker Yassamin Maleknasr crosses the border and does a round trip through the major areas of war torn Afghanistan, documenting the voices of a scarred and battered people.