Afghan Filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat Speaks on Fleeing Kabul

Afghan Filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat had received an offer to leave Afghanistan hours before the Taliban took over Kabul but had declined, because it meant leaving family members behind.

The next day she went to the bank.
“Suddenly we saw Taliban cars with white flags … and … we’re running and that was for me like a moment of a movie that couldn’t be real because I was in the middle of Kabul.” Sadat told Reuters in an interview. “

Accompanied by nine family members, Sadat, whose first feature film “Wolf and Sheep” won the main prize at Cannes festival Directors’ Fortnight section in 2016, eventually headed for Kabul airport. They arrived in Paris earlier this week.

“I was lucky but this is not the situation for many people,” she said, referring to the crowds stranded at the airport. “They do not speak English, they are not a filmmaker, they don’t have any international friends and their life is in danger.” she added.

According to Reuters, in describing the sad and chaotic scenes while queuing at the airport, the Afghani director said it took 72 hours from her leaving her apartment to reaching French troops at Kabul airport, where she spent a night at their compound before flying to Abu Dhabi.

“I have all kind of mixed feelings … I don’t understand all this. Everything was so sudden and so quick,” Sadat said.

“I want to continue making films but perhaps my point of view is changed … The political thing displaced me so I cannot ignore it anymore because I am hurt by that.”

Sadat, who was born in Iran and moved to Afghanistan in December 2001, was working on a romantic comedy before fleeing.

S.S/Reuters