War and Love in Kabul: Ilkley Screening

War and Love in Kabul [2009, 87 minutes]

Dir: Helga Reidemeister, Germany. Subtitled

Screening Date: November 22, Sunday, 7 p.m.

Venue: Ilkley Moor Vaults (The Taps) pub, off Skipton Road, opposite All Saints Primary School

Tickets: We are asking for a voluntary contribution of £3 each or £5 a couple and £1 for pensioners. Free for students and people on benefits.

Parking: Plenty of parking spaces in and around the pub. Within walking distance of train and bus stations

Hossein and Shaima have loved each other since childhood. As teenagers, they were separated by war. Now, they meet again in Kabul in the 1990s. Poverty forced Hossein to fight in the war. A shell splinter leaves him a paraplegic. Shortly afterwards, Shaima is sold in marriage to a man 40 years her senior. Despite the fact that Shaima is with child, her father brings her back into the constraining patriarchal fold as her husband never paid her dowry in full. These complex circumstances do not prevent these two lovers from seeing each other, even though this means going against their families’ rules and living in fear of revenge. [Source: Film.com]

The other documentaries on Afghanistan worth a look are:

Rethink Afghanistan by Robert Greenwald
Taxi to the Dark Side, Alex Gibney's Academy award winning documentary
Enemies of Happiness documenting the incredibly brave Afghan M.P. Malalai Jola standing up to the warlords in parliament
Addicted in Afghanistan follows two young boys, among an estimated million children addicted to heroin