Afghan director Sahraa Karimi calls for support from international film community: “They will ban all art”

Filmmaker Sahraa Karimi has called for the international film community to support Afghan film workers amid the crisis in the country.

Taliban forces effectively took control on Sunday night, after advancing on Mazara-e-Sharif and Jalalabad earlier in the week, then Kabul on Sunday.

Karimi has been sharing footage of Kabul over social media, as the Taliban closed in on the capital city.

In another post, Karimi – who is also the director of state-run company Afghan Film – said: “Taliban surrounded Kabul, I were to bank to get some money, they closed and evacuated; I still cannot believe this happened, who did happen. Please pray for us, I am calling again: Hey ppl of the this big world, please do not be silent , they are coming to kill us.”

 

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A post shared by Sahraa Karimi صحرا كريمي (@sahraakarimi)

Now, Karimi has shared an open letter, forewarning that the Taliban will ban “all art,” and urging film communities to raise awareness and help protect artists. The post has since been shared by directors Mark Cousins (Women Make Film), Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri (The Tashkent Files), Anurag Kashyap (Gangs of Wasseypur) and Leena Manimekalai (Maadathy: An Unfairy Tale).

“I write to you with a broken heart and a deep hope that you can join me in protecting my beautiful people, especially filmmakers, from the Taliban,” she began, before detailing some of the terrifying brutality of the Taliban rule from 1996-2001.

Karimi added: “It’s a humanitarian crisis, and yet the world is silent.

“We have grown accustomed to this silence, yet we knew it is not fair. We know that this decision to abandon our people is wrong, that this hasty troop withdrawal is a betrayal of our people and all that we did when Afghans won the Cold War for the west."

To All the #Film_Communities in The World and Who Loves Film and Cinema!

I write to you with a broken heart and a deep hope that you can join me in protecting my beautiful people, especially filmmakers from the Taliban. #Share it please, don't be #silent. pic.twitter.com/4FjW6deKUi

— Sahraa Karimi/ صحرا كريمي (@sahraakarimi) August 13, 2021

Begging the world not to "turn its back" on Afghanistan, Karimi added: “Everything that I have worked so hard to build as a filmmaker is at risk of falling. If the Taliban take over they will ban all art. I and other filmmakers could be next on their hit list.”