Cinema can’t change anything: Siddiq Barmak

Afghani director Siddiq Barmak describes the dismal state of film-making in his war-torn country, which hardly has any movie theatres.

Despite limited funding options, Afghani director Siddiq Barmak has managed to make not one, but two feature movies. His first, Osama — about a girl who is disguised as a young boy to survive in Taliban-struck Afghanistan — won a Golden Globe for the Best Foreign Language Film in 2004. His second film, Opium Wars (2008), was a dark comedy about two American soldiers stranded in the poppy fields of Afghanistan. One would imagine that after two critically-acclaimed, award-winning projects, making his next movie would be a tad easier. But clearly, that isn’t the case.

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At the ongoing Mumbai Film Festival (MFF) 2013 where he is heading the India Gold section, Barmak says, “My second film had producers from South Korea and France. So now I am looking for (funding for) my new film in Russia, Germany, France and maybe India. I don’t know… this is a big problem… that’s why I am jealous of my friend, Asghar Farhadi, who is making a film in his own country. Some bank has come to invest in his film, but we still don’t have it (funding).”

Although there has been a recent surge in the number of cinema enthusiasts in Afghanistan, Barmak says the government’s “open market style of financing films” is a big obstacle. “We work in the absence of producers. That’s why such talented Afghani film-makers are collecting money from their friends, making short films and travelling outside to find producers,” he says.

Incidentally, MFF also has a section, Kabul Fresh, dedicated to screening films made by young directors from the country. “There are lots of them — including many women — making documentaries. And they have a chance to do something. For older people at our age, it’s too late. Although I believe cinema can’t change anything. If that was possible, films would stop all these wars from taking place. It can only give ideas of change,” he says.