Sahraa Karimi, an Afghan film director and screenwriter is currently in Dhaka, as her films are being showcased at the 13th Dhaka International Film Festival. Dhaka Tribune caught up with the filmmaker to know about her storytelling techniques and more.
Tell us about yourself and your work.
I am a film director from Afganistan. I studied in the Czech Republic and have acquired my PhD from the Academy of Music and Performing Arts, Film in Slovakia. A year ago, I returned to Afganistan and started working. I will be screening two of my best work at the 13th Dhaka International Film Festival. One is a long length documentary and another is a short length fiction film. I’m also a jury member of Spiritual Section: Interfaith Jury for Spiritual Films. I have participated in the International conference on women in cinema, with my keynote paper titled Filmmaker as Civil Activist.
What was your first work as a professional?
My first work was a documentary titled Searching for Dream and it is a nice coincidence that my first film was also exhibited in Dhaka International Film Festival 2006. I created both fiction and documentary film and during my studies I made 30 short films.
Your film ‘Light Breeze’ is going to be exhibited at the 13th Dhaka International Film Festival. Tell us about it.
Light Breeze is a fiction film, but it also has elements of my personal experience as an emigrant from Iran to Slovakia. My parents are of Afghan origin and during the early years of their marriage, they moved to Iran, where I was born.
The film is set around a young girl with a docile and calm nature, who emigrated to Slovakia from Afghanistan. It is a common notion that displacement has the power to make one feel out of their depth and this fact is portrayed in the film.
Your film ‘Afgan Women behind the Wheel’ is also going to be exhibited, please elaborate.
Yes, it is to be showcased in the festival. Afgan Woman behind the Wheel is a documentary, I made it in 2009. The feature is about four women, one of them is a taxi driver and the other three wants learn driving a taxi from her. The film is metaphorical and it demands the basic human rights of these women. It got 19 awards from around the world, including Academy Awards in Slovakia.
What is your inspiration?
I have this drive within myself to communicate with the world, not just my own people. Filmmaking for me is the mode of that need to communicate, rather than being just a job or means for earning.
How do you feel about being a woman filmmaker?
Many critiques in Afghanistan says that my films are full of feminism. I believe that women can be equally good filmmakers, like men. Also, a woman’s storytelling technique varies greatly from that of a man’s.
Your childhood was spend mostly in Iran. Do you think that your work is inspired by Iranian New Wave Cinema?
European new wave and new trends are close to my work as I have been residing outside Iran for about 12 years. I don’t believe in Iranian New Wave, as the western critiques term it. For me, it’s like an Iranian new way of telling stories. I believe that Italian Neo-realism, French New Wave and Romanian New Wave have effects on my films.
Do you have cooperation with woman filmmakers of Afganistan, as another short film of an Afghanistani woman filmmaker is going to be exhibited in DIFF?
No, we don’t have such opportunities in Afghanistan, for lack of funding and other difficulties. I work individually outside the country and I have some funding in Slovakia.