A Flickering Truth

Ibrahim Arify had to flee his homeland of Afghanistan because of jihadist guerillas. Now a resident of Germany, he returned in 2012 to lead the Afghan film institute in its cataloguing and restoration of Kabul’s dilapidated film archive. The journey through 8,000 hours of dusty film reels yields new surprises every day. Watching rediscovered material sparks youthful recollections among the archive staff – of the films they saw or made, and of the society they have lost. Mahmoud the gardener recalls how some films were saved from the Taliban at the risk of life and limb. “Uncle Isaaq,” a wizened old man who has been living in the building for 31 years, is the link between the archive and the living history it contains. The films are his memory and his family. We witness Afghanistan rediscovering its own turbulent history and cultural heritage: a report of King Amanullah’s journeys from 1927, the first romantic drama from 1936 and footage of President Najib’s execution in 1996. But when Arify is forced to leave the country again on the eve of the presidential election in 2014, the fragility of Afghan democracy – and the safety of its film archive – is all too clear.