What We Left Unfinished

What We Left Unfinished (2019)

About five never completed films made between 1978 and 1992 before the backdrop of the various communist regimes that came to power in Afghanistan. Scenes from these films, some of which later reused in other works, are edited together with current footage of their locations and commentaries by the filmmakers and actors involved in the productions, allowing us to dive into action films and romantic dramas that revolve around local histories and conflicts.

Date of release
2019-02-09
TMDB
8.0 / 10 (1)
Runtime
1h 12m
Genres
Documentary
Director
Mariam Ghani

Casting

Interesting facts

What We Left Unfinished is a 2019 Afghan documentary film by Mariam Ghani about five incomplete Afghan films, all started during the Communist regime of Afghanistan. The film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2019.

Background and synopsis

During the rule of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, the government invested heavily in the film industry, sponsoring many films. Filmmakers were provided with military support too, often using live ammunition and real soldiers on the sets. These films thus also served as propaganda for the regime.

The documentary is a culmination of Ghani's six years of research at Afghanistan's National Film Archive in Kabul. Ghani worked to digitise films from the archive and organised multiple screenings of these at museums and universities around the world. At one such screening, filmmaker Latif Ahmadi learned that the footage of the April 1978 coup in Afghanistan (the Saur Revolution) was from his 1984 film Escape.

The documentary consists of clips from the films, accompanied by interviews of the directors, the cast and some crew members. Ghani intended the documentary to raise awareness about the Communist regime in the country. She stated that the films only reflected the lives of a small group of elites, who referred to themselves as the "enlightened people". The Communists are often depicted as "revolutionaries" in these films.

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