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Director/Producer: Helga Reidemeister
Hossein and Shaima, who have known and loved each other since childhood, were separated as teenagers by war in Afghanistan. Today, reunited in Kabul, they remain deeply in love, but their relationship is socially and religiously prohibited. Hossein, young and jobless in the late nineties, was paid to fight with the Taliban and a war injury left his legs paralyzed. He is now handicapped, and unable to work. Shaima was sold in marriage to a man forty years her senior, by whom she had a child, but, since the dowry remained unpaid, her father brought her back home to live. The film also discusses the prospects of marriage for Shaima's sisters within a culture in which daughters are virtually bought and sold, a tradition in which they are unable to pursue their own romantic desires but must submit to a marriage arranged by their father. War and Love in Kabul thus reveals the broader context of family life in a deeply traditional society, one in which the chances of personal happiness are very small.
Helga Reidemeister was born in Halle (Saale) in 1940. After her schooling in Cologne, she studied painting at the College of Arts in Berlin, and worked as a restorer after her graduation in 1965. She gained an international reputation as a director with her graduation film Is This Fate?, winning various prizes, including the German Film Award, for this portrait of a mother who rebels against her role in society. The film was the subject of considerable debate and became an important impulse for the development of documentary cinema in Germany. Reidemeister's award-winning films reveal the balance of power within society that determines the lives of individuals, especially those of women.
Icarus Films
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©2010 United Nations Association Film Festival (UNAFF) |
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