4 years ago, Salim Shaheen was part of the Cannes festival. He is now locked up in his home in Kabul, frightened by the Taliban regime.
Four years ago, Afghan filmmaker Salim Shaheen captured the spotlight at the Cannes festival. Now he spends his days confined to his home in Kabul, scared by the new Taliban regime and the repression suffered by the arts and music.
Prolific and exuberant, Shaheen often talks about whether in the third person or as one of the characters conceived in his 125 low-budget films.
A mention of his big moment at Cannes awakens a burst of enthusiasm in him.
“It was the most beautiful moment of my life!” He exclaims from his home in Kabul. “All the French knew me. They yelled at me: Shaheen! Shaheen! “, keep going.
The film presented at Cannes was a documentary called “The Prince of Nothingwood,” produced by journalist Sonia Kronlund, who followed Shaheen during the filming of her 111th film.
The 56-year-old filmmaker still recollects the long standing ovation he received after the screening of the documentary in Cannes.
But that seems a long way off these days, and while he has received no direct threat from the Taliban, currently lives in fear of radical Islamists who regained power in mid-August after two decades of insurgency.
“I’m scared,” he admits, putting his theatrical personality on hold for a moment. “I’m not just any guy going out on the street. I am Salim Saheen, ”he says.
The director fled to Pakistan during the first Taliban regime (1996-2001), when film and television were banned and the arts severely censored.
The new government promised a more flexible attitude on this occasion. Television is still allowed but with strong content censorship, and the few cinemas in the country are mostly closed due to the economic crisis.
Restrictions on dancing, playing music, and singing vary between provinces.
“The cinema is dead”
When the Taliban entered Kabul on August 15, Shaheen burned dozens of posters of his films, keeping only two of them in a half-naked room.
He tried to leave the country that month and claims he was on a list of people accepted by France.
“He was supposed to march on the day of the explosion at the airport,” says Shaheen, referring to the August 26 suicide attack claimed by the Islamic State group that killed more than 100 people.
He was in a vehicle at the airport when the explosion occurred. “We received a message telling us to leave the area”, remember.
Since then he has lived cloistered at home, along with twelve relatives who also had to be evacuated.
“All the actors and actresses in my films are currently in France (…) I want to go somewhere where I can go back to my art and my cinema,” he says.
His productions address social issues such as violence against women, crime or drugs, topics that are not to the taste of the Taliban.
Drawing inspiration from Bollywood, she flirts with all kinds of genres -drama, comedy, action, police …- and integrates music and dance into her plots.
His flamboyant style is not always appreciated by the more educated Afghans, but he is very popular among the lower classes. In Kabul, many cannot help but smile if their name is spoken.
The Taliban Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has made it clear that films contrary to Islamic and Afghan culture are not allowed.
In mid-November, it issued a religious directive urging Afghan television networks to stop broadcasting soap operas featuring women.
A ministry spokesman told AFP that he did not know Shaheen or his work.
The filmmaker has just finished editing his last three projects, although he does not know if they will ever reach the public.
“Cinema has died in Afghanistan and Salim Shaheen has died with it”he regrets, going back to the third person. (I)
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
