India’s cooperation sought to develop film industry in Afghanistan

Director of Afghan Film ‘A Man’s Desire for A Fifth Wife’, Sediq Abedi wants that India should help to develop film sector in Afghanistan. In an interaction with media persons along with his cast and crew at the 44th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), he said that Afghan people love India and its film. He said, due to prolonged turbulence in Afghanistan, the film industry has collapsed and film making, its marketing and infrastructure facility is not available to show the commercial films in the country. Abedi said that as India is helping in rebuilding Afghanistan, the Indian film industry and the government should come forward to develop the film industry too in Afghanistan. He informed that there are only about 20 film theatres which are not even capable to run high budget films.

Abedi said that in the last 66 years, this is the first feature film which was filmed in Afghanistan itself to show the reality of his country. It was a challenge for the crew and technical team which came from India and Tajikistan for the two months long shooting. He said, ‘we tried to establish the cultural and social realities of the country in the film and want to release this Dari language film ‘A Man’s Desire for A Fifth Wife’ in India with Urdu and English subtitles.’

For the establishment of film industry in Afghanistan, the Producers of the film Murad Hamidi and Sabruddin Rahmani have sought India’s help to train Afghani talents in the film making field.

The actress of the film ‘A Man’s Desire for A Fifth Wife’, Takhmina Rajabova, a Tajik, has acted in nine films in Tajikistan and two films in Afghanistan. She said that she is acting as the third wife in the film. It was a challenge for her to work with the crew from India.

The film ‘A Man’s Desire for A Fifth Wife, reflects the thousand year’s old custom which occurs in a village at the north of Afghanistan. It tells the story of violence against women. A man with old traditions wants to get married for the fifth time; despite having four wives already. The story shows the suffering of women in their society. The story also portrays all aspects of the age old culture and traditional game Buzkashi or Oghlak with thousand horses.

The cast and crew of the film thanked and praised the 44th IFFI for providing a wide platform for filmmakers to have cross cultural interaction and share art and ideas of filmmaking.