Any documentary made in Afghanistan since the Taliban’s return will, almost of necessity, be rough and tumble: the regime doesn’t take kindly to filming anything but propaganda videos, and especially when the subject is female repression, the difficulties are immeasurable. So it’s impressive that Sahra Mani (A Thousand Girls Like Me) was able to put together a film at all, much of it shot illegally by the participants themselves, showing the dreadful situation for women in Afghanistan since the takeover. Produced by Jennifer Lawrence’s company Excellent Cadaver, Bread and Roses has gotten significant press coverage thanks to the star’s association, though that kind of attention is a double-edged sword since it turns the narrative into a “Hollywood star helps downtrodden women” story which then gets quickly replaced by the next news cycle. While the documentary feels hurriedly put together, it remains a powerful look at the suffocating condition of women in Afghanistan today.
In terms of creative artistry, the best moment is at the start, when shots of a Kabul market before the extremists’ return are interrupted by lightning, and suddenly the movements run backwards – a fitting description of how things changed so dramatically in August 2021 when the Taliban entered Kabul. The first woman we’re introduced to is Dr. Zahra Mohammadi, a dentist on the eve of her wedding to Omid: she’s got her own clinic and life was falling into place nicely until the fateful change. At first the Taliban didn’t touch women doctors (though they wanted her name removed from the sign), so in those early days the clinic became a meeting place for women activists organizing protests and sharing experiences, relieved to find solidarity in this safe space.
For people who haven’t been following what’s been happening in the country – as well as the clueless/cynical U.S. government who abandoned Afghanis to their fate, pretending that somehow the Taliban had changed – scenes of women protestors being violently attacked by so-called moral guardians will shock with their brutality. The bravery of these women is indisputable as small groups initially took to the streets, but soon the presence of women in almost any public setting without a niqab was banned, and all rallies have since become near impossible. Education for girls is now proscribed and women have been excised from the work force.
The director was able to flee to Pakistan, but several of the women she’d been filming weren’t as fortunate: some like Sharifeh Movahidzadeh ended up in substandard halfway houses across the Afghan border ,while others like Taranom Seyedi became prisoners in their own homes, sending Mani footage recording their growing desperation. As they themselves relate, theirs is a different generation from twenty years ago, when opportunities were few and education largely a dream – from the fall of the first Taliban government in 2001 until now, a growing number of women had entered the professional sector and instilled in their daughters the belief that their goals were achievable. That’s all disintegrated, and despite the calls for “Bread, work and education,” their voices have been strangled.
Visuals understandably becomes rougher once Mani is no longer on the ground, giving a raw urgency to the increasingly bleak situation. Dr. Mohammadi is arrested and released after some time, temporarily crushed but unrepentant. A scene of preschoolers in an apartment demanding education and rights for women may be considered cute, but they’re merely mimicking what they hear from adults around them, turning serious protest into playacting. Ultimately the dentist leaves, with an emotional goodbye to her supportive husband, but the other women seen become ever-more despondent, either trapped in a scandalously inadequate guesthouse in Pakistan or in their own apartments, only able to see the outside from their rooftops. There is no happy end here, no glimmer of hope: the situation is dire and although Mani avoids going into the politics of how this was allowed to happen, the stain from Western abandonment will remain a permanent blot.
Director: Sahra Mani
With: Zahra Mohammadi, Taranom Seyedi, Sharifeh Movahidzadeh
Producers: Jennifer Lawrence, Justine Ciarrocchi, Sahra Mani
Executive producer: Farhad Khosravi
Cinematography: Abdul Sami Murtaza
Editing: Marie Mavati, Hayedeh Safiyari
Music: Masoud Sekhavat Doust
Sound: Sami Murtaza
Production companies: Excellent Cadaver (US)
World sales: LBI Entertainment
Venue: Cannes (Special Screenings)
In Pashto
93 minutes
