Contestants Rafi Naabzada (left) and Lima Sahar (center) on stage in AFGHAN STAR, a film by Havana Marking. A Zeitgeist Films release.
International Film Night -- "Afghan Star"
Nov 10, 2009, 8:00 PMMilky Way
Award-winning documentary "Afghan Star" will be shown on campus for International Education Week. Free admission!
After thirty years of war and five devastating years of Taliban rule, pop culture is beginning to return to Afghanistan and millions are tuning in to the wildly popular American Idol–style television competition, Afghan Star. Two thousand people audition to compete for a cash prize and a record deal, and when viewers vote for their favorites via cell phone it is, for many, their first encounter with the democratic process.
Winner of the Directing and Audience Awards in Sundance’s 2009 World Documentary competition, Havana Marking’s timely and moving film follows the dramatic stories of four young finalists—two men and two women—as they hazard everything and even risk their lives to become the nation’s favorite performer. By observing the Afghani people’s relationship to its pop culture, Afghan Star is the perfect window into a country’s tenuous, ongoing struggle.
“Wonderful movie!... takes us somewhere few movies have.... The sense of hope and danger is more palpable here than in any other movie I've seen at Sundance, and the film's hard-won good vibes had the audience cheering.”
–Ty Burr, Boston Globe/Movie Nation
“An informed and entertaining dispatch about the collision of culture, ideology and history that ultimately suggests a darker, more rueful Afghani Slumdog Millionaire.”
–Screen International
“A documentary every bit as exciting and heartfelt as reality TV hits American Idol and Britain’s Got Talent introduces new stars and their amazing stories, and also pulls back the curtain on a much maligned country, Afghanistan.”
–Steve Ramos, Box Office Magazine
Posted by International Programs (intlprograms@pacificu.edu) on Oct 27, 2009 at 2:10 PM
Edited by Alana Kansaku-Sarmiento (kans2166@pacificu.edu) on Nov 4, 2009 at 2:43 PM
