Screening Time: Sunday, May 4, 3:00 PM, Charles Theatre 5

Director: Taran Davies

Cast: Walied Osman, Ad Sharza, Hadji Ahmed Shamsadin, Najib Najibullah

Country: U.S.
Year: 2002
Running Time: 58 minutes
Format: Beta SP

As American bombers started blasting Taliban outposts in Southern Afghanistan, filmmaker Taran Davies and Afghan American Walied Osman tried to enter from the north. Their goal was to make a film that would help outsiders understand the long struggle with the Taliban, and the chaos that preceded it. By meeting a variety of people, from a refugee family caught between their homeland and part of their family in America to a revered village elder who has provided guidance to his village through several regime changes, the filmmakers help us discover a country most Americans had never heard of before 9/11/01. It’s a privilege to be screening this work, especially with Taran and Quyam Karzai hosting. We’re grateful to the Sundance Channel for their help, and Afghan Stories will air on the channel this summer.

--Jed Dietz

Presented By: Taran Davies and Quyam Karzai

Taran Davies directed The Land Beyond the River, which premiered on PBS in 1998. As a filmmaker, he has been particularly interested in Islamic cultures, and remote regions in conflict. His film Mountain Men and Holy Wars is also screening at MFF 2003