Tower and Town, October 2021

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My Childhood, My Country - 20 Years In Afghanistan

The title of this piece is also the title of a film by Phil Grabsky, Film and Documentary Maker, Seventh Art Productions, (seventh-art.com) and the Afghan filmmaker, Shoaib Sharifi, Director of BBC Media Action in Afghanistan. The first film about the boy, Mir, was shown at the Marlborough College Afghanistan Seminar in 2011. We are hoping to arrange a screening of Grabsky’s new film in Marlborough soon.

Heated discussion continues about what has and has not been achieved over the past 20 years in Afghanistan. In 2002, I flew into Afghanistan searching for a story to help illustrate the essence of the Afghans. For far too long, horrific TV images had portrayed the Afghan people as nothing other than oppressor or oppressed. My fate led me to deciding to make a film about a young, cheeky, good-humoured boy called Mir whose face smiled back at me through my camera lens. My first film, ‘The Boy Who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan’ was released in 2004 and a second film (working with the extraordinary Afghan filmmaker Shoaib Sharifi) when Mir was just 16, was released in 2011: ‘The Boy Mir - 10 years in Afghanistan’. Afghanistan filming presented challenges; mines, kidnap, the Taliban and the most lethal, driving on their roads. In 2011, my time filming in Afghanistan felt like it had ended, but not my involvement with a people whom I had grown to love, respect and greatly admire. The broadcasting world had also changed, so making truthful reality films in countries like Afghanistan had become almost impossible. One broadcaster stood out, however, WDR in Germany. They wanted more of Mir and, after some reflection, we decided that 20 years was a better timeframe in which to reach some kind of conclusion about the 2001 US/NATO intervention. Knowing full well Afghanistan is never black or white, the film does make clear there have been many positive developments. Afghanistan has changed, but opportunities were missed; lives have been unnecessarily lost; progress that could have been made, has not been made. That the Taliban have retaken power is not a surprise to me. In my view, it could have been different. But, with me forever are the amazing adventures, the laughter and Mir’s sheer perseverance in helping to create 20 years of unique filming, offering unparalleled insight into Afghanistan and families now desperately trying to leave.

Neil G M Hall