”Kabul Cinema tells the story of my generation”

Abdali Muhammad compares himself to the main character in Kabul Cinema:”My life was just like the life of this child.”

”This film is symbolic. It is about life between war and love. It is the story of one generation”, says Abdali Muhammad, 32, an Afghan living in Tampere.

He is talking about Kabul Cinema, a film he has just seen, made by another Afghan Mirwais Rekab. The film will be shown in the Tampere Film Festival in the Dailylife in Afghanistan series and in the International Competition.

Abdali, who grew up in the belligerent Afghanistan, compares the story in the film to his own life. In his view, Kabul Cinema tells in the first place about people living in the middle of a war, about people who feel love and zest for life even though there is a war raging around them.

”People long for love, even though they have to live in the middle of a war”, Abdali clarifies his own view of the film, an 18-minute-long story of a young projectionist who tries to keep film culture alive in his home village during the Taliban time.

Abdali Muhammad fled from Afghanistan in 1998 because of the Taliban government. He explains that in the Taliban time, watching films was forbidden in the country.

”There used to be two public movie theatres in my town, but the Talibans smashed up one of them, and the other one was taken for other purposes.”

The war has impressed its stamp on Abdal’s generation of Afghans. When Abdali was eight years old, the Soviet army started waging a long and exhausting war in Afghanistan, that lasted throughout the 1980’s. This war was soon followed by a hard civil war that began in the early 1990’s, and whose consequencies are still visible.

”The civil war was a difficult time for the people and for the country”, says Abdali, who used to work as a reporter in North Afghanistan.

Abdali has lived in Finland for a year, and he finds it great that Afghan films can now be seen in Tampere. However, he feels that these films are mostly intended for foreigner audiences. Afghans themselves won’t have many chances to see them.

”It is good that through these films, foreigners can see Afghanistan. But Afghans themselves won’t be able to see them, because they have no electricity.” However, Abdali is glad that there are films made in Afghanistan nowadays. Kabul Cinema shows that there is will and strength in the country.

”We need movies of our own, but the fact is that making them is difficult, because Afghanistan is a poor country. The film art needs support, but the government has no money.”

According to Abdali’s estimation, there are now seven movie theatres in Kabul. The programmes consists mainly of Indian movies.

”Afghans love Indian love stories. About 90 % of the movies in the theatres are Indian”.

Abdali himself likes watching some Indian art films, Iranian films and old American westerns. Mirwais Rekab and Kabul Cinema are new acquaintances to him. Abdali can name two other Afghan directors: Engineer Latif and Siddiq Barmak.

However, he is going to try to find the time to visit the Film Festival to see more new movies from his home country.

”It is fun to go and see Afghan films. This is a great opportunity.”

Kabul Cinema by Mirwais Rekab will be seen in the International Competition on Thursday, March 4 at 12.00 and on Saturday, March 6 at 10.00 as well as in the Dailylife in Afghanistan 2 series on Friday, March 5 at 12.00.