It’S Pushing Midnight when my armored escort pulls up to a high-walled compound on the outskirts of Ankara, the Turkish capital. After more than a year and a half of waiting, Abdul Rashid Dostum, Afghanistan’s most notorious and elusive warlord, has summoned me for an interview, his first since the Taliban takeover that forced him to flee his homeland. Special police patrol the periphery of his estate for assassins, and a pair of fighting mastiffs bark at me as I’m led past a fountain up to a...
- 7/30/2023
- by Jason Motlagh
- Rollingstone.com
In his latest documentary, “Retrograde,” daredevil director Matthew Heineman captures the final months of America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan. To tell the harrowing story through the eyes of Americans and Afghans, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker embedded with the U.S. Army Green Berets and Lt. Gen. Sami Sadat of the Afghan army. “Retrograde” has landed on the Oscar documentary shortlist.
Heineman is no stranger to battlegrounds. He has put his life on the line to make documentaries about the Mexican drug wars (“Cartel Land”), Isis in Syria (“City of Ghosts”) and the initial explosion of Covid-19 in the U.S. (“The First Wave”). But he says “Retrograde,” which refers to the process by which military forces extricate themselves from conflict, was his most difficult film.
Embedding with the Green Berets was something you had been thinking about doing long before 2021. Why? It began for me probably five or six years ago with this very clichéd question,...
Heineman is no stranger to battlegrounds. He has put his life on the line to make documentaries about the Mexican drug wars (“Cartel Land”), Isis in Syria (“City of Ghosts”) and the initial explosion of Covid-19 in the U.S. (“The First Wave”). But he says “Retrograde,” which refers to the process by which military forces extricate themselves from conflict, was his most difficult film.
Embedding with the Green Berets was something you had been thinking about doing long before 2021. Why? It began for me probably five or six years ago with this very clichéd question,...
- 1/6/2023
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
A version of this story about “Retrograde” first appeared in the Guilds & Critics Awards / Documentaries issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.
When the government of Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in August 2021, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Matthew Heineman was on the ground in Kabul, documenting the violent, tragic crisis as it unfolded.
Heineman talked to TheWrap about his motivation for telling this story, his relationship of trust with an Afghan general and the anonymous woman who’s featured memorably in the film’s final shot. “Retrograde” is in select theaters and available to stream on Hulu.
Also Read:
‘Retrograde’ Review: Visceral Doc Puts Viewers Squarely Inside the U.S. Withdrawal From Afghanistan
“Retrograde” chronicles the last months of U.S. engagement in Afghanistan and features devastating footage as the country fell to the Taliban. Was it a film that had long been in the works?
For me, it started four or five...
When the government of Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in August 2021, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Matthew Heineman was on the ground in Kabul, documenting the violent, tragic crisis as it unfolded.
Heineman talked to TheWrap about his motivation for telling this story, his relationship of trust with an Afghan general and the anonymous woman who’s featured memorably in the film’s final shot. “Retrograde” is in select theaters and available to stream on Hulu.
Also Read:
‘Retrograde’ Review: Visceral Doc Puts Viewers Squarely Inside the U.S. Withdrawal From Afghanistan
“Retrograde” chronicles the last months of U.S. engagement in Afghanistan and features devastating footage as the country fell to the Taliban. Was it a film that had long been in the works?
For me, it started four or five...
- 12/9/2022
- by Joe McGovern
- The Wrap
Before the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, when the Taliban ruled over the country, women were barred from public life, schools for girls were shuttered, and non-religious art was banned. In the subsequent two decades, women have become politicians, girls have been educated, and the country’s films have gained international attention. But that’s all threatened now that the Taliban has once again seized control of Afghanistan, Afghan filmmaker Sahraa Karimi wrote in a recent open letter.
Karimi, who in 2019 was appointed as the first woman to lead the state-run Afghan Film company, posted the letter on Twitter on Friday. In it, she pleads with members of the international film community to use their voices to fight the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.
“Everything that I have worked so hard to build as a filmmaker in my country is at risk of falling,” Karimi wrote. “If the Taliban...
Karimi, who in 2019 was appointed as the first woman to lead the state-run Afghan Film company, posted the letter on Twitter on Friday. In it, she pleads with members of the international film community to use their voices to fight the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.
“Everything that I have worked so hard to build as a filmmaker in my country is at risk of falling,” Karimi wrote. “If the Taliban...
- 8/16/2021
- by Chris Lindahl
- Indiewire
Facing the first foreign policy fiasco of his administration so far, President Joe Biden addressed the nation and the world today on the situation in Afghanistan and the return of the horrific Taliban to power.
“I’m President of the United States of America, the buck stops with me,” the defiant President echoed Harry S Truman’s famed motto from the White House Monday as events in Afghanistan turned more chaotic by the minute.
“I’m deeply saddened by the facts we face, but I do not regret my decision to end America’s fighting in Afghanistan and maintain a laser focus on our counter-terrorism mission there and other parts of the world,” Biden stridently added of what he markedly referred to as “another country’s civil war.”
“This is not in our national security interests,” Biden stated in what was a overall slam of the last Afghan government for...
“I’m President of the United States of America, the buck stops with me,” the defiant President echoed Harry S Truman’s famed motto from the White House Monday as events in Afghanistan turned more chaotic by the minute.
“I’m deeply saddened by the facts we face, but I do not regret my decision to end America’s fighting in Afghanistan and maintain a laser focus on our counter-terrorism mission there and other parts of the world,” Biden stridently added of what he markedly referred to as “another country’s civil war.”
“This is not in our national security interests,” Biden stated in what was a overall slam of the last Afghan government for...
- 8/16/2021
- by Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
Afghan filmmaker Sahraa Karimi shared an open letter, urging the international community to end its silence on the tragedy that is unfolding in Afghanistan as the Taliban take over.IANSFacebook/ Sahraa KarimiFilmmaker Anurag Kashyap took to social media on Monday, August 16, to share an appeal made by Afghan filmmaker Sahraa Karimi, who is the first female chairperson of the Afghan Film Organisation. In an open letter, Sahraa appealed to the international community to end its silence on the tragedy that Afghanistan is confronting as it is overrun by the Taliban. Urging people to share the message, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap reposted Sahraa’s appeal and wrote: “Pls share it far and wide…” In the letter, Sahraa talked about the horrors the Taliban has inflicted upon the people of Afghanistan. She wrote about the Taliban selling girls off as child brides to their fighters; gouging out the eyes of women who did...
- 8/16/2021
- by SaradhaU
- The News Minute
Sahraa Karimi, the Afghan filmmaker and general director of national film company Afghan Film, has called for support from cinema communities around the world as her country falls to the Taliban insurgency.
The Taliban effectively took control of Afghanistan on Sunday after seizing the capital Kabul, overthrowing the incumbent government, with president Ashraf Ghani fleeing the country. The U.S. has evacuated embassy staff and troops have been dispatched in a bid to take control of Kabul airport to help evacuate thousands more who are fleeing the new regime.
Karimi posted a statement on Twitter addressing “all the film communities in the world”.
“I write to you with a broken heart and a deep hope that you can join me in protecting my beautiful people, especially filmmakers, from the Taliban…They have massacred our people, they kidnapped many children, they sold girls as child brides to their men,” she wrote.
The Taliban effectively took control of Afghanistan on Sunday after seizing the capital Kabul, overthrowing the incumbent government, with president Ashraf Ghani fleeing the country. The U.S. has evacuated embassy staff and troops have been dispatched in a bid to take control of Kabul airport to help evacuate thousands more who are fleeing the new regime.
Karimi posted a statement on Twitter addressing “all the film communities in the world”.
“I write to you with a broken heart and a deep hope that you can join me in protecting my beautiful people, especially filmmakers, from the Taliban…They have massacred our people, they kidnapped many children, they sold girls as child brides to their men,” she wrote.
- 8/16/2021
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Two decades, trillions of dollars, and hundreds of thousands of lives after the United States ousted the Taliban from power following 9/11, the Islamic militant group has retaken control of Afghanistan.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the nation on Sunday as Taliban insurgents entered the capital city of Kabul, marking the collapse of the government the U.S. spent the past 20 years attempting to remake. As the Taliban moved into Kabul, officials said they expect a complete transfer of power, Reuters reported, and Afghan political leaders are working with the Taliban...
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the nation on Sunday as Taliban insurgents entered the capital city of Kabul, marking the collapse of the government the U.S. spent the past 20 years attempting to remake. As the Taliban moved into Kabul, officials said they expect a complete transfer of power, Reuters reported, and Afghan political leaders are working with the Taliban...
- 8/15/2021
- by Ryan Bort
- Rollingstone.com
It’s past 10 a.m. on a Tuesday morning and Zarifa Ghafari is running late for work. Six days a week, she commutes from her home in Kabul to Maidan Shar, the embattled capital of Wardak province, where she serves as the youngest female mayor in the country. Her office is just 30 miles southwest of the Afghan capital. But getting there requires a drive down National Highway 1, a massive U.S.-built showpiece once hailed as “the most visible sign” of America’s commitment to rebuilding Afghanistan after decades of war.
- 1/22/2021
- by Jason Motlagh
- Rollingstone.com
President Donald Trump made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Thanksgiving to address the troops at Bagram Air Field, his first visit to the war-torn country.
The President also made news on another front, saying that peace talks with the Taliban have been re-ignited. “I just want to say that we thank god for your help and all of the things that you’ve done. You’re very special people and you don’t even know how much the people of our country love and respect you,” Trump said to the assembled troops.
Bigger news was that the Taliban talks are back on. “We will see if the Taliban wants to make a deal. … If they do, they do,” Trump said. “If they don’t, they don’t.” A ceasefire would have to be a part of any deal, which the President saying he believes the Taliban will agree to those terms.
The President also made news on another front, saying that peace talks with the Taliban have been re-ignited. “I just want to say that we thank god for your help and all of the things that you’ve done. You’re very special people and you don’t even know how much the people of our country love and respect you,” Trump said to the assembled troops.
Bigger news was that the Taliban talks are back on. “We will see if the Taliban wants to make a deal. … If they do, they do,” Trump said. “If they don’t, they don’t.” A ceasefire would have to be a part of any deal, which the President saying he believes the Taliban will agree to those terms.
- 11/28/2019
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
From the Afghan Abigail’s Party to the thriller made with live bullets, Mariam Ghani, daughter of the country’s president, has made a riveting documentary about five unfinished communist-era films
‘I don’t know if I was completely prepared for my parents moving back to Afghanistan,” says Mariam Ghani, a Brooklyn-based film-maker whose father, Ashraf Ghani, is now Afghan president. She was 23 at the time and had never set foot in the country. After the fall of the Taliban, post 9/11, her father worked as an adviser to the interim government, before he was elected president in 2014. Ghani become a regular visitor, exploring the country by making art, which for her is a peculiarly nerdy process.
“I love archives,” says Ghani, who is now in her 40s. “I once organised a conference on radical archives.” She has even created her own: Index of the Disappeared. “It’s an archive of...
‘I don’t know if I was completely prepared for my parents moving back to Afghanistan,” says Mariam Ghani, a Brooklyn-based film-maker whose father, Ashraf Ghani, is now Afghan president. She was 23 at the time and had never set foot in the country. After the fall of the Taliban, post 9/11, her father worked as an adviser to the interim government, before he was elected president in 2014. Ghani become a regular visitor, exploring the country by making art, which for her is a peculiarly nerdy process.
“I love archives,” says Ghani, who is now in her 40s. “I once organised a conference on radical archives.” She has even created her own: Index of the Disappeared. “It’s an archive of...
- 6/6/2019
- by Amy Fleming
- The Guardian - Film News
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