''16 Days in Afghanistan'' is a 2007 documentary film about the journey of Afghan-American Anwar Hajher, also the director, traveling to his homeland Afghanistan after 25 years to rediscover his country. The film is produced by Mithaq Kazimi and is the first documentary since the fall of
Taliban
The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pasht ...
to be shot in those provinces which remain under the heavy influence of the Taliban. The film become a reference film on Afghanistan, including
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.
It was selected as part of the first Afghan art exhibit show in the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
opened by president
Hamid Karzai
Hamid Karzai (; Pashto/ fa, حامد کرزی, , ; born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan statesman who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from July 2002 to September 2014, including as the first elected president of the Islamic Repub ...
.
Synopsis
The film is divided into 16 days in which the director discusses a different issue with the Afghan people.
Day 1: He arrives in Kabul Airport and meets the family. A short introduction of the
history of Afghanistan
The history of Afghanistan as a state began in 1823 as the Emirate of Afghanistan after the exile of the Sadozai monarchy to Herat. The Sadozai monarchy ruled the Afghan Durrani Empire, considered the founding state of modern Afghanistan. T ...
and discusses the situation with the caretakers, guards, and the
ulema
In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious ...
s who are there. An inside look into the historical artifacts of the mosque. An interview with a westerner who visited Afghanistan in the 1970s and discusses Islam and the Taliban.
Day 3: Interview with the colonel of the Afghan National Army about the status of women in Afghanistan. Interview with a businesswoman who sells mantu on the street. Interview with street children testing their education and questioning them about school. Interview with a traffic police on how the economy has effected the number of cars and drivers.
Day 4: Interviews with a kebab seller and an electronic seller about their business. Interview with a street woman and her view about the government and president Hamid Karzai. Interview with a blind street singer. He has his fortune read by a woman fortune teller.
Day 5: Interview with a doctor and pharmacist about medicine and foreign medical aid in Afghanistan. Interview with a
sickle
A sickle, bagging hook, reaping-hook or grasshook is a single-handed agricultural tool designed with variously curved blades and typically used for harvesting, or reaping, grain crops or cutting Succulent plant, succulent forage chiefly for feed ...
-maker about his business and what he thinks of life.
Day 6: Interview with a former representative of
Iranian cinema
The Cinema of Iran ( Persian: سینمای ایران), also known as the Cinema of Persia, refers to the cinema and film industries in Iran which produce a variety of commercial films annually. Iranian art films have garnered international fame ...
about her perception of the people. Interview with a street photographer, comparing standard film to digital photography. Interview with a butcher and his customer about business and health.
Day 7: On the way to Kabul, he eats and introduces Afghan cuisine. Interview with a UN representative and employee about UN activities in Afghanistan. The representative discusses
land mines
A land mine is an explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it. Such a device is typically detonated automati ...
and how they affect people's lives. Hajher recalls his last days in Afghanistan during the Cold War.
Day 8: Interviews with many day laborers and how the current political and economic system affects their lives.
Day 9:Interview with the founder of Afghan Human Rights Committee about the involvement of United States and western powers in Afghanistan and
terrorism
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
.
Day 10: Hajher visits an illegal local hashish bar to interview hashish sellers, users and addicts. People discuss why they smoke, how it affects their lives and why they don't drink alcohol.
Day 11: Visiting the businesses in the popular
Chicken Street
Chicken Street ( prs, کوچه مرغ ''Koch-e Murgha'') is a narrow street located in the Shahr-e Naw district of Kabul east of the Asamayi. It has been an iconic shopping street in the city and popular with foreigners, famous for its carpets, ...
and how it has changed or remain the same over the years. Interview with the sellers and western visitors who speak about the culture of Afghanistan.
Day 12: Hajher visits his village to meet his extended family. Greetings and interviews with the family about religion, politics and the way of life in the United States.
Day 13: Hajher faces death for a moment when he thinks that his village barber is going to cut his neck. The head of the village, the religious figure and other known figures come to meet and question him.
Day 14: He visits his dad's enemy to make peace and visit his old house which was taken over by the enemies of his father.
Day 15: Leaving Afghanistan, farewell to family and friends.
Day 16: Landing in the United States
Augusta, Georgia
Augusta ( ), officially Augusta–Richmond County, is a consolidated city-county on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia. The city lies across the Savannah River from South Carolina at the head of its navigable portion. Georgi ...
airport. A montage of his recollections of the people he met and the places he visited.
Cast and crew
The film is directed by Anwar Hajher, an Afghan-American anthropologist and current Afghan cultural advisor and professor in Georgia. Mithaq Kazimi has produced the film. The score is composed by Ahmad Shah Hassan and Larry Porter with additional music by
Hariprasad Chaurasia
Hariprasad Chaurasia (born 1 July 1938) is an Indian music director and classical flautist, who plays the bansuri, in the Hindustani classical tradition.
Early life
Chaurasia was born in Allahabad (1938) (officially called Prayagraj) in the I ...
.
Cast include
Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John F ...
volunteers, spokesperson for the Afghan National Army, former representative of Iranian cinema in Afghanistan and former western photographers and professional working in Afghanistan. The film also includes interviewees with the Afghan people from bread sellers to fortune tellers to heroin users to doctors to Mullahs to UN officials and ordinary school children.
Cultural heritage
In 2011, the film was selected by the
National Museum of Afghanistan
The National Museum of Afghanistan (Dari: موزیم ملی افغانستان, ''Mūzīyam-e mellī-ye Afghānestān''; ps, د افغانستان ملی موزیم, ''Də Afghānistān Millī Mūzīyəm''), also known as the Kabul Museum, is a ...
in partnership with the National Geographic as an object of cultural heritage and will be showcased alongside other cultural artifacts in exhibitions around the world. The first of such exhibition was the ''Afghanistan: Crossroads of the Ancient World'' in the British Museum March–May, 2011.
Impact
''16 Days in Afghanistan'' has also been shown in many television stations, film festivals and non-profit events around the world. It is in circulation in many public school and university libraries. It has become one of the major and key documentaries about Afghanistan and is used by many people and organizations as a resource. Some include the official study guide from
Penguin Group
Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a merger that was finalised on 1 July 2013, with Bertelsmann initi ...
for
Khaled Hosseini
Khaled Hosseini (;Pashto/Dari ; born March 4, 1965) is an Afghan-American novelist, UNHCR goodwill ambassador, and former physician. His debut novel ''The Kite Runner'' (2003) was a critical and commercial success; the book and his subsequent ...
China International Television Corporation
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones ...
have used the documentary to explore and better understand the culture of Afghanistan to conduct their videoconferencing on Afghanistan.
The Center for Afghanistan Studies and Academy of International Studies of the Jamia Millia Islamia university held screenings and discussions on the film.
Afghan critics and scholars have hailed the film for being neutral to the political and tribal issues while other documentaries often take sides.
Wasef Bakhtari
Wasef Bakhtari ( fa, استاد واصف باختری) (born 1942 in Balkh, Afghanistan) is an Afghan poet, literary figure and intellectual.
Life and education
Bakhtari spent most of his childhood in Mazar-i-Sharif. He attended Bakhtar School fo ...
, renowned poet and historian has commented on the ability of the director to speak both Pashtu and Dari natively, while also communicating perfectly in English. Other publications covering the film and the filmmakers include a through interview in '' Peyk'' magazine.
Many publications have reviewed and discussed the film thoroughly, mostly in Afghanistan, but also some in the west. ''Cine Source'' mentions ''16 Days in Afghanistan'' as one of the two distinguished documentaries made in Afghanistan after the Taliban era. Another states that the film has something for everyone. One publication discusses the film in comparison to more recent film, the Raindance-selected '' Where My Heart Beats''.
In 2009, ''16 Days in Afghanistan'' opened a two-day film festival on Afghanistan in India sponsored by the Embassy of Afghanistan, India Habitat Centre and Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution. Other films in the series were '' The Beauty Academy of Kabul'', '' The Afghan Chronicles'', '' Beyond Belief'' and the recent Sundance selection, ''
Afghan Star
''Afghan Star'' is a reality television show competition that searches for the most talented singers across Afghanistan. The program broadcasts on the TOLO channel. ''Afghan Star'' premiered in 2005, four years after the fall of the Taliban, w ...
''.
In 2011, the film was shown in the British Museum in the United Kingdom in partnership with the National Museum of Afghanistan and the National Geographic.