Synopsis
Indian filmmaker Soumitra Ranade grew
up in Kabul as a teenager. Twenty-six years after
leaving the country, he returns to post 9/11 Afghanistan
to revisit the definitive years of his youth.
In a country devastated by war, he rediscovers
its beauty through his memories and encounters
with its people. Showing a side of Afghanistan
often ignored by the Western media, the film takes
us on a hopeful journey through the past and present
of a country that has yet to see lasting peace.
Coming back to Afghanistan after 26 years was
not easy. I had wanted to come much earlier. But
then, it was not possible. A sea of humanity was
trapped inside with all doors closed. How was
one to break through?
 My
house during those eventful years from 1976 to
1980 was at Chauraya Ansari in central Kabul.
My father had been posted here, working for the
Govt. of India. Today the house belongs to a private
American company. The present occupants are away
in the US, so I couldn’t go inside. I have
come all the way from Mumbai after 26 years, and
I cannot enter and see the place where I once
lived…The only memory that I carry with
me now are old photographs and some home movies;
memories frozen in time that I was desperately
trying to place back into this cold, surreal setting.
I was a youngster when we first came to Kabul.
I played in this very lane…so many years
ago. Seeing the children in Afghanistan now meant
so much to me because they were revealing to me
an Afghanistan that I hoped to see. These are
the images I have wanted to return to for 26 years.
Children doing precisely what they are supposed
to do…neither brandishing Kalashnikovs nor
seen as victims of war. They are just playing…
What has disturbed me during the past so many
years are the images that have come out of the
country; images that were splashed all across
the news channels, newspapers and magazines, images
of gun wielding mullahs! Images of little children
playing with AK47, images of battered villages
and of injured bodies, images of extreme poverty
on one hand and religious extremism on the other.
According to estimates, over the past 26 years
about 2.5 million Afghans have died as a direct
or indirect result of the war be it due to army
assaults, famine or lack of medical attention.
In other words, every year 125,000 or about 340
people a day or 14 people every hour or one in
about every five minutes have died or been killed
because of this tragedy. Did we see those images
through the rose tinted glasses of our own realities
or did we ever dare ask? Whose war is this? Who
won?
 Peace
is prosperity...this everybody knows. Peace means
stability and jobs. It means marriages of their
sons and daughters. Peace means foreign tourists
and American Dollars. Peace means food and heating
at affordable prices. So a mass of people return
to their respective work and try and put a life
together that had just recently been torn apart
by conflict and strife.
Afghanistan does not have a role in today’s
world. It is neither a country remembered for
a commodity nor for its scientific advancement
or as a nation that has achieved artistic honours.
Those who recognize the name Afghanistan immediately
associate it with opium, the Taliban, Islamic
fundamentalism, war with Russia, a long-time civil
war, American occupation, famine and high mortality.
In this portrait of a nation, there is no trace
of peace, stability or development.
How does one ask a country like Afghanistan are
you alright? What answers do I expect? And yet
I know that the ordinary Afghan who has always
had a raw deal is still strong. His resilience
is eternal. And to that I raise my hand in salute…
Soumitra Ranade is an alumnus of the
Film and Television Institute of India (FTII),
Pune with specialization in Film Direction, 1991.
He has directed various documentaries, music videos,
shorts non fiction series for television besides
the feature films Sapatnekarache Mool (Marathi)
and Jajantaram Mamantaram.
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