Filmed on location in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, an Afghan woman recalls how the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan led to her forced displacement and marriage.
Supported by
Community Broadcast Partner
Community Partner
Fereshta Afshar
Canada
2022
In Dari with English subtitles
Gender or Sexual Discrimination
Featured in:
VIFF Short Forum: Program 3
The camera eye knows no bounds in these stories that push the limits of gravity and grace.
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Late Fame
Based on a novella by Arthur Schnitzler (Eyes Wide Shut) this is a sly, poignant comedy about vanity and art from director Kent Jones, starring Willem Dafoe as a mailman belatedly acclaimed for a book of poetry he wrote in his youth.
Memory of Princess Mumbi
In 2093, a filmmaker arrives in the African village of Umata, where he meets Princess Mumbi, a woman torn between love, legacy, and the future of storytelling. It's a fabulous genre-blending fable about memory, invention and cinematic resistance.
Lessons of Darkness
Werner Herzog's unforgettable documentary reveals the unfolding disaster of the Kuwaitian oil fields in flames in 1991 as a sweeping inferno of mesmerizing power.
Beau Travail
Inspired by Herman Melville's Billy Budd, Claire Denis' transfixing Beau Travail is set in East Africa. Sgt Galoup (Denis Lavant) reflects on his time in the French Foreign Legion, and the impact of the handsome Sentain (Gregoire Colin).
But I'm a Cheerleader
Megan (Natasha Lyonne) is the perfect All-American Girl, or so she thinks. That is until she’s shipped off to conversion therapy. This pitch black comedy is wrapped in a saccharine bow, featuring the icon herself, RuPaul, as a conversion counsellor.
Credits
Producer
Salar Pashtoonyar
Screenwriter
Salar Pashtoonyar
Cinematography
Parwiz Arify
Editor
Jalal Shams
Director
Salar Pashtoonyar
Salar Pashtoonyar is originally from Afghanistan and now based in Canada. As a director, his films have screened at festivals worldwide, including Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, and Palm Springs International ShortFest. After growing up as a refugee due to the wars in Afghanistan, he now explores the lives of ordinary people that deal with abnormal situations. Pashtoonyar holds degrees in Film Production from Toronto Film School and York University. His film Bad Omen (2020) was nominated for Best Canadian Short at the Canadian Screen Awards, and won the Bronze Medal at the 2021 Student Academy Awards.