WOMEN’S CINEMA IN AFGHANISTAN

 ALKA SADAT TELLS ABOUTS HERSELF AT CA’ FOSCARI SHORT FILM FESTIVAL

The Ca ‘Foscari Short Film Festival inaugurated its eleventh edition with a special program that deals with the delicate condition of women in cinema, in Afghanistan. A program dedicated to the Herat Women’s International Film Festival, led by the female voices of its founder Roya Sadat and coordinator Alka Sadat who, present on the stage of the Auditorium, explained: “The festival was an experience that allowed many women to enter cinemas for the first time, it became an opportunity for them to go out and participate in the cultural life of the country, showing the true life of Afghan families.” Founded in 2013, the HWIFF is the most important festival dedicated to women’s cinema in Central Asia and it is precisely through the film act that the festival is the guarantor and supporter of social issues such as gender equality, sexual identity and domestic violence. Sadat explained how the founding goal of the festival is to bring out the strength of women in different life situations, promoting a positive image of those who fight with dignity to make changes in their environment, focusing in particular on women in cinema. The festival is an annual event in Afghanistan that brings together directors, film lovers and international activists in a continuous intellectual exchange. This year, for the well-known geopolitical reasons, the festival could not take place, but it has found a voice in the Venetian spaces of the Ca ‘Foscari Short Film Festival with the precious presence of Alka Sadat.

The latter is not only coordinator of the HWIFF, but also made her directorial debut in 2006 with First Number, a documentary that earned her the conquest of the Afghan Peace Prize. However, all this would not have been possible without the presence of her sister Roya, as “she was the first female director in Afghanistan: at the beginning it was difficult because several people were “afraid” of us, they didn’t accept that a woman could do this job. Over the years, they have learned to accept it and for sure, now, even with the political situation that has arisen, there will be new movements in support of this type of cinema. People have learned to know and accept it; they have understood that our cinema could be useful for our society. ”

On the occasion of the director’s presence, the Short screened her most recent documentary medium-length film: Afghanistan Night Stories (2015). For the documentary realization the director said she took part at the forefront of the life of a battalion of Afghan soldiers, heart of the resistance against the Taliban, talking about it with an empathetic gaze hopes, fears, loves, nostalgias of individual soldiers who are catapulted as civilians, for economic and ideological reasons, face to face, with a hard and cruel war reality which reacts to the laws of a dichotomous survival. The documentary is important as for the first time the direct testimony of a reality that previously had found neither space nor voice is brought back to the screen. If on the one hand the documentary shows the survival conditions of Afghan soldiers fighting to defend their belonging, on the other puts the accent on the role of Afghan women. A subject matter which has Alka’s experience in the field as an example of a woman worker in a male context.

In presenting the documentary at the festival, Alka Sadat talked about how the Taliban’s presence led to the destruction of cinemas on Afghan soil, preventing continuous exchanges of ideas and comparisons that cultural encounters are soaked and increasingly marginalizing the cultural value of women. In light of these repression, the festival has born as a voice and mirror of Afghan society, making women’s requests and needs visible and therefore presents itself as an opportunity for Afghan women to actively participate in the country’s cultural life: “With the Taliban, cinemas had disappeared from Afghan cities, and for a long time, moments of cultural encounter could not be created, especially for us women. Therefore we came up with the idea of ​​creating a festival that would bring forward the demands and needs of women and the whole of Afghan society. At the beginning we had no support, we have began counting only on our strengths,  but after seeing the festival grow to be one of the most important in the country, and not only, it was a big satisfaction”.

The encounter has been ended so with a big celebration cathartic potential of cinema and its strength to being a mean of liberation within an oppressive context.