Afghan Alphabet

(Alefbay-e afghan)

by Mohsen Makhmalbaf

Iran

Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaf

Script: Mohsen Makhmalbaf

Cinematographer: Mohsen Makhmalbaf

Assitant Director: Samira et Hana Makhmalbaf

Sound: Mojtaba Mirtahmasb

Music: Mohamad Reza Darvishi

Cast: Maryam Ozbak, Ghafour Barahouyi and Afghan refugees in Syria

Production: Makhmalbaf Film House

Distribution:
Wild Bunch
99 rue de la Verrerie
75004 Paris
Tel: 0033 1.53.10.42.50
Fax: 0033 1.53.10.42.69
Mail: [email protected]
www.wildbunchdistribution.com

Year: 2002

35 mm, Colour, 46 min, 
OV Farsi, Pashto with English Subtitles
French Electronic Subtitles

French Premiere

Mohsen Makhmalbaf tracks the children who do not attend school in the border villages between Iran and Afghanistan with his digital camera and questions why they are not being educated. He finds girls studying in UNICEF classes in one region. One of the girls is not willing to come out of her burqa despite the fact that she has run away from Afghanistan and the Taliban are not present here. She is more afraid of the horrifying god that the Taliban have created more than the Taliban. The teacher tries...