Indian filmmaker breaks tradition by making film in Taliban territory in Afghanistan

INVC,

Delhi,

When man desires something and gets it easily, he wants more of it. As William Shakespeare said, desire of having is the sin of covetousness that seems unending.
The Film “Man’s Desire for Fifth Wife” has now been selected for the 44th IFFI under the category of Cinema of the World (CW) and will be screened in Goa on the 25th of November 2013.

The film “Man’s Desire for Fifth Wife” in Dari language of Afghanistan is in many ways an apt example of this. Produced under the banner of Altin Films, the film also poses several questions about male-dominated society and values set centuries earlier that continue to exist.
But more than anything else, this is notable because it is the first time that a film has been made in that region by a crew that was headed by a woman associate director.
This is a particularly important achievement since the film was made in the orthodox Taliban territory where a woman can be stoned to death if even an inch of her body becomes visible to anyone.

The 90-minute film (sub-titled in English) has been produced by Sabruddin Rahmani, Murad Hamidi, and Farid Yarash, the film’s casting director was Sediq Abedi who was the story writer as well as the main star with Shakhnaza Jabirwa. The Associate Director was Neelofer Shama while the cinematographer was Ramesh Nath. The background music of the film has been composed by Ravindra Jain, while the production design was by Sanjay Bhan. The costume designers were Hayatullah Alamyar and Emam Berdihof. The editing of the film was done in N S Studio in Delhi while the film was processed at Adlabs and sound was handled on Dolby 7.5 by Empire Studio.

Neelofer says she and her crew had been invited to Tajikistan to make five documentaries there. During this visit, she met the Afghan producer who invited her to shoot a feature film in Afghanistan.

Thus “A Man’s Desire for Fifth Wife” has become the first production after India’s independence to have been made by private filmmakers from both countries.

Since local traditions do not allow young women to act, most of the ten women in the film are from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and only aged women are from Afghanistan, Neelofer revealed, adding that the main actress was from Afghanistan but emigrated from the country after the film was completed. The crew also had artistes from Russia and Canada. She also said she could see many local women watching her enviously from a distance
The film has already been screened to a full house at the Boston International Film Festival in April this year.