No voice for Afghan director at film festival

His refugee status is preventing Hassan Fazili, an advocate for women’s rights, from attending a screening of his movie

NEW YORK // Filmmaker Hassan Fazili fled Afghanistan last year in search of a home where he could speak freely after the Taliban threatened him with death over one of his movies.

But Fazili, who moved to Serbia, will remain voiceless at a German film festival next week where his work will be shown. His status as a refugee means he cannot attend the screening of his own film. The Censored Women’s Film Festival, which begins tomorrow in Berlin, plans to show his short fiction film, Mr Fazili’s Wife, a 10-minute drama about a single mother who defies expectations that she will become a prostitute.

It is a rarely expressed critique by an Afghan man on patriarchy in Afghanistan.

Fazili, 37, said he began making movies about women’s rights a decade ago after he married his partner, Fatima. In Afghanistan’s conservative society, she had been prevented from going to school.

“I must do something to raise this issue to the world,” he said. He took up filmmaking and also taught his wife, who has become a filmmaker, he said.

Fazili opened Kabul’s Art Cafe and Restaurant, hoping to provide space for men and women to meet and discuss art and politics openly.

But in 2014, the police and re- ligious authorities forced him to close the cafe.

At the same time, the Taliban criticised his latest film, Peace in Afghanistan, and the death threats began.

“I received phone calls saying that they will kill me for making movies like this,” he said.

While living in Afghanistan, Fazili said he was forced to turn down invitations to show his films in the United States and Britain because of visa restrictions. He had hoped this time would be different.

“It was really important for me to be there, to know what people get from this movie,” he said.

Fazili is one of about 6,400 migrants from Syria, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan in Serbia, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

They have been stranded in the Balkan country as border closures prevented them from moving further into Europe.

Film festival organisers said they petitioned the UNHCR to allow Fazili to make the trip.

“We are desperate for Hassan to come to Berlin and share his story,” said Paula Kewskin, a festival spokeswoman.

Serbian authorities could not be reached for comment.

But Fazili said he was resigned to missing the opportunity to present his work to an international audience.

He said that although he was now free from persecution and bent on making women’s rights heard, he regretted that he still was not part of the conversation.

“They might have questions about the movie and as a director I’m supposed to answer the questions,” he said. “But we can’t do much from here.”

Fazili is one of about 6,400 migrants in Serbia