''The Orphanage'' is a 2019 Danish-Afghan

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

written and directed by

Shahrbanoo Sadat Shahrbanoo Sadat (born in 1991) is an Afghan filmmaker born in Tehran, Iran. Life and career Sadat grew up in Tehran and a remote community in central Afghanistan. She studied documentary filmmaking at the Kabul workshop of Ateliers Varan , an ...

. It was screened in the

Directors' Fortnight The Directors' Fortnight (french: Quinzaine des Réalisateurs) is an independent selection of the Cannes Film Festival. It was started in 1969 by the French Directors Guild after the events of May 1968 resulted in cancellation of the Cannes festiv ...

section at the

2019 Cannes Film Festival The 72nd annual Cannes Film Festival took place from 14 to 25 May 2019. Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu served as jury president. The Palme d'Or went to the South Korean film ''Parasite'', directed by Bong Joon-ho; Bong became t ...

. It is the second installment in a planned

pentalogy A pentalogy (from Greek πεντα- ''penta-'', "five" and -λογία ''-logia'', "discourse") is a compound literary or narrative work that is explicitly divided into five parts. Although modern use of the word implies both that the parts are re ...

based on the unpublished diaries of

Anwar Hashimi Anwar may refer to: * Anwar (name), a given name and surname (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Anwar (singer) (born 1949), an Indian playback singer * ''Anwar'' (2007 film), a 2007 Hindi film * ''Anwar'' (2010 film), a 201 ...

, who plays a supporting character in the film. Its prequel, '' Wolf and Sheep'', came out in 2016. It has been nominated for best film at several different film festivals, winning at an international festival. They won the

Best Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

award at the Reykjavik International Film Festival in 2019.

Plot

The film follows the 15-year-old Qodrat (Qodratollah Qadiri), who at the beginning of the movie lives on the streets of 1989

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

and gets by on scalping cinema tickets and peddling key rings. After being picked up from the streets he is sent to the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

operated juvenile detention center known as "the orphanage". Here he is one of five new arrivals, along with 14-year-old Masihullah (Masihullah Feraji) and his 16-year-old nephew Fayez (Ahmad Fayaz Osmani) who are given regular meals, living quarters, a primary education. The audience is introduced to the inner life of the stony faced Qodrat in

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

-style dream sequences in which he is free to express his feelings for a girl in class or one of his close pals. Dorm-room power scuffles ensue, sometimes broken up by the director Anwar (Anwar Hashimi), who takes on a father-like role. Some of the boys are taken on an excursion to

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

where they get to compete in chess with their fellow young comrades. This life is again upturned when teachers struggle to toe the line of the

Mujahideen ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' ( ar, مُجَاهِدِين, mujāhidīn), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' ( ar, مجاهد, mujāhid, strugglers or strivers or justice, right conduct, Godly rule, etc. doers of jihād), an Arabic term th ...

after the Soviets withdraw from Afghanistan. This story is based on the unreleased diaries of Anwar Hashimi, who played the role of the supervisor in the film. The director, Shahrbanoo Sadat, was from the same village as Hashimi, therefore using his diaries felt personal for her as well. The characters, Sediqa and Qodrat, are based on them in both of the films.

Cast

* Qodratollah Qadiri * Hasibullah Rasooli * Masihullah Feraji * Sediqa Rasuli * Anwar Hashimi * Ehasanulla Kharoty

Reception

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website

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, the film holds an approval rating of 91% based on 22 reviews. Jay Weissberg of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' magazine called ''The Orphanage'' a "clumsy Bollywood re-creation" that "add significant flavor".

Peter Bradshaw Peter Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire''. Early life and education Bradshaw was educated at Haberdashers ...

of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', called the film "energetic and captivating drama".

Carlos Aguilar Carlos Aguilar (born May 25, 1988) is an American soccer player who is currently an assistant coach at San Diego State University. Career College and amateur Carlos attended Palmdale High School played two years of college soccer at Taft Coll ...

of ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

,'' called the film, "an imperfect yet charming blend of Bollywood and Soviet Afghanistan."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Orphanage, The 2019 drama films 2019 films Danish drama films Afghan drama films