Afghan film on kite flying was shot ‘guerilla style’
There are hazards to filmmaking, but terrorist attacks aren’t considered to be a common hurdle in the process.
Unless, of course, the movie is set entirely in the Afghan capital of Kabul, as in the case of Vancouver-based Afghanorigin director Tarique Qayumi’s The Black Kite, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
The Dari language film is also the first fiction feature made as an Afghanistan co-production (along with Canada) to get to this prestigious showcase, a bit of history for the conflict-ridden country. Given the challenges of filming in Kabul, it was shot “guerrilla style” in just 14 days, the director said in an interview. The film focuses on the life of Arian and his boyhood obsession with kites, one that stays with him till the end. That’s also a metaphor for Afghanistan, from a nation with a sense of “freedom” under King Zahir Shah, and the decades of chaos and killing that have consumed the country after he was deposed in a coup in 1973.
From freely seeing kites of multiple hues and designs soar skyward as a child, Arian assists the mujahideen battling the Communists in Afghanistan, using the colours of the kites he flies as signals. Ironically, the joy he finds in this activity is snuffed out as the ultimate killjoys, the Taliban, declare kite-flying forbidden.