The Forbidden Reel

Cinema is invaluable in carrying on history. Under the Taliban regime, the Afghan film archive has been almost completely destroyed, even filmmakers are not sure of their lives. A small group of people managed to keep a part of the archive from the fundamentalist Taliban. This footage of fifty years of Afghan film history are shown in The Forbidden Reel.

Afghanistan is a country with a history that knows drastic power shifts. From the communist regime and the war with Russia to the oppression by the Muslim fundamentalist Taliban. But violence and oppression are not the only things that characterise Afghanistan.

In The Forbidden Reel, Airel Nasr shows the rich culture and profound history of Afghanistan. He underlines the importance of visual memories. This establishes that cinema is invaluable. Being able to look back at history is essential for self-reflection and understanding the present.