The story of Shaista, a young man who—newly married to Benazir and living in a camp for displaced persons in Kabul—struggles to balance his dreams of being the first from his tribe to join the Afghan National Army with the responsibilities of starting a family. Even as Shaista’s love for Benazir is palpable, the choices he must make to build a life with her have profound consequences.
After the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the restriction of women in public life, a preteen girl is forced to masquerade as a boy in order to find work to support her mother and grandmother.
In the remote mountains of central Afghanistan, a Hazara family embarks on a journey for truth and justice after their daughter Zahra mysteriously dies at Kabul University. Told through the eyes of Zahra's younger sister, Freshta, the film is a moving contemplation of love, loss, and perseverance in spite of increasing unrest on the eve of the Taliban takeover of the country.
In 2015, the Taliban put a price on the head of Hassan, a filmmaker, who was forced to flee Afghanistan with his wife and two young daughters. Using their camera phones, the fugitives show first-hand the many dangers refugees face when seeking asylum in a safe place.
It’s snowing in Kabul, and gregarious waiter Mustafa charms a pretty student named Wajma. The pair begin a clandestine relationship—they’re playful and passionate but ever mindful of the societal rules they are breaking. After Wajma discovers she is pregnant, her certainty that Mustafa will marry her falters, and word of their dalliance gets out. Her father must decide between his culturally held right to uphold family honor and his devotion to his daughter.
A historic drama with musical Bollywood scenes. Kabul in the early 90s. Soviet values rule the country. Women can wear miniskirts, children can go to school and people can go to the cinema, concerts as well as universities. Life in Afghanistan is similar to life in the Western world. 14 years old Qodrat sells cinema tickets on the black market in the streets of Kabul. After selling a ticket to a secret police officer by mistake, he ends up at the Soviet orphanage, where he fakes his identity at the registration, in hope of getting more power. Everyday life for Qodrat is about friendships, falling in love, doing naughty things and going on adventures – just like it is for children in other parts of the world. However, behind the safe walls of the orphanage the world they once knew is drastically changing as the Mujahideens start the civil war.
Trashy Lollywood flick follows a young woman who on her wedding night, is raped by a gang of criminals. She’s then forced to endure the torment of watching her husband to-be, beaten and hung from the rafters using only her shoulders to keep him grasping onto life. When she eventually collapses he falls to his death sending her on a killing vendetta.
A young camera operator falls head-over-heels in love with a married TV reporter, who is twice her age. The clash between intense love and the beliefs of Afghan society creates 'unheard' ways of being together and handling romantic life.
In a country offering almost no treatment services despite a crisis of addiction, Laila Haidari took the highly unusual decision to found her own pioneering addiction treatment center and a restaurant where all of the waiters are recovering heroin addicts. A deeply personal perspective on the global addiction epidemic, the film follows the labor of love of one woman fighting to keep her center alive in the face of physical threats, governmental opposition and the departure of the international community from Afghanistan.
When you lose everything, can a game save your dreams? The film follows two Afghan brothers: Sir (21), Allahverdi (17) who live in illegal housing together with around twenty other men. Cricket, an unusual sport for Turkey, is the biggest passion of these migrants, where they feel at home and forget all their troubles. The film juxtaposes the daily-life images of those immigrants in an observational style with a cricket match accompanied by an entertaining live commentary. Through the eyes of Afghan refugees in Turkey, we learn how cricket becomes a tool of resistance, while the cricket field becomes a piece of home.
In the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, a widowed father expects his only son to follow in his footsteps. Darra Adam Khel is home to the ethnic Pashtuns. The local industry is the handcrafting of firearms. It has been this way since long before the war on terror. Eleven-year-old Niaz Afridi works with his father learning how to make and test weapons just as Sher Alam learnt from his father before him. But Niaz doesn’t want to follow in his father’s footsteps. He wants to go to school.
Saddled by a senile grandfather and a neglectful father, Mina, an impulsive twelve-year-old Afghan street seller sees her future slipping away when she is forced to neglect her education and walk the streets of Kabul to support her fragmented family. In the seven days that follow her life, Mina’s quest to emancipate her father from the claws of a local drug dealer and her attempt to secretly attend school underlines the current struggle of a young generation of Afghans trying to shake off the echoes of oppression from the Taliban era that continues to haunt those who bore witness to it.
A sweet musical about a poet and an independent woman, two friends who really love each other, with a bit of a Cyrano twist when the poet's best friend asks him to court the woman on his behalf. All ends happily though, unlike in most Afghan films.
Elderly Dastaguir and his newly deaf 5-year-old grandson Yassin hitchhike and walk, but mostly walk, as they make their way to the coal mine where Dastaguir's son Murad works. Dastaguir must tell Murad that the rest of their family were all killed in a recent bomb attack.
A woman is raped. Instead going after her attacker, the law and society imprison the victim.
Jawed Taiman takes a distinct look at Afghanistan and lets the Afghan people have their say. En route through the different provinces, through urban and rural regions, in discussion with intellectuals and simple folk, politicians and Taliban fighters a multifaceted picture emerges of a country that is often portrayed as incomprehensible.
There is a world beyond our world where men say NO to Women when it comes to the making decision. Most women suffer extreme inequality, but only few women accept dangers and fights against it.
Aarash, a 12 year old Afghan refugee. His father. His fractured radio. A world of noise with no voice.
Story of young students from diverse cultures and from different Afghan ethnic groups, who make their worldviews and theories and are struggling with severe contradictions and challenges that disrupt the order of their daily lives.
Baghch-e-Simsim is a Pashto and Dari children's television series based on the American Sesame Street, which was officially launched in Afghanistan on December 1, 2011. Characters appearing will include Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Elmo, Abby Cadabby, Grover as Kajkoal, and Ernie as Hadi along with Bert. However, it was reported that Oscar the Grouch and Count von Count will not be featured due to cultural differences. The project is funded by the Embassy of the United States in Kabul and is produced in consultation with Afghanistan's Ministry of Education. The show's producer is Tania Farzana, an Afghan-American, and its initial 26 half-hour episodes are being aired in Dari language on locally owned Tolo TV. The Pashto version will be aired on Lemar TV. Education in Afghanistan is very low and Baghch-e-Simsim is designed to help with that, especially Afghan children because about 45% of the population is younger than 15. Sesame Street was first introduced to Afghanistan in 2004 as Koche Sesame, which was shown on state-owned television and as a teaching tool within some schools in the form of DVDs. One of the segments was "Grover Around the World", based directly on the Global Grover segments of the American original. The new Baghch-e-Simsim version "will be partly filmed in Afghanistan with the rest lifted from other versions in Muslim countries including Egypt and Bangladesh", as well as Mexico and Russia.
Afghan Star is a popular reality television show which searches for the most talented singers across Afghanistan. The program is broadcast on Tolo TV channel.
Afghan game show version based on the original British format of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?".
In 2007, a local TV station in Mazar-I-Sharif, Afghanistan aired a reality television show modeled after the America's Next Top Model. International media took notice and dubbed the show Afghanistan's Next Top Model.
Eshghe Shirin
Social humor about the living conditions of Afghans living in Europe. Writer and director Khalil Yousefi Actors Saeed Hooshmand Nilab Nova Diana Mirza
It is a joint Iranian-Afghan series that depicts the love story and immigration problems of several young people and immigrant families in Germany.
Ganjina is the Afghani version of the television gameshow Deal or No Deal. It premiered on May 30, 2010 and is broadcast on Tolo TV. The show was earlier hosted by the afghani actor Rahim Mehrzad and was later taken over by Mukhtar Lashkari. There are 20 boxes containing prizes from 1 Afghani to 1,000,000 Afghani. There has been three top prize winners. The last episode was aired on May 14, 2013. From May 15 to June 6, 2013 was a rerun of notable episodes, including celebrity editions and two of the top prize winning episodes. On June 8, 2013, the show was replaced by new game show 100 saniye, an Afghani adaption of Divided.
