Siddiq Barmak

Director, writer editor born in 1962, in Panjshir (Afganistan). He got his master in film direction at the Moscow University in 1987. From 1992 to 1996 Siddiq was head of the Afghan film organisation but was forced into exil in Pakistan with the raise of the Taliban. Once the Taliban regime fell, Siddiq re-established the Afghan film organisation and went on to found the Buddha film organisation. Unfortunately all of Siddiq’s previous works were confiscated during the Taliban regime. Among his films is ASCENT (UROOJ) about the Afghan resistance against the invasion of the Soviet Union. In April of 2003, Mohsen Makhmalbaf appointed Siddiq Barmak as in charge of the Afghan Children’s Education movement (ACEM). In doing so, the ACEM was officially placed in the hands of the Afghan people and will continue the tradition in the promotion of the literacy, culture and arts for the children of Afghanistan.

Director’s statement

“It’s very important for our cinema to say things about Afghan society that will change things. Cinema is very powerful. At this time, 85% of people in Afghanistan are illiterate: they are not able to read newspapers or books. So the power of pictures can be very strong and help them make a visual connection.
“I changed the title and the end, they were too optimistic, too idealistic. In the first ending, the women manages to escape. When I edited the film, though, I realized that Afghan women have not reached freedom yet and the little girl, as a representative of women’s society in Afghanistan, is still in the house as if she were jailed. After twenty-three years of war, of course, things don’t change over night – we need at least four or five or even ten years to make lasting changes”.