S13 · E03

Afghanistan: Lights, Camera, Death Threats

The team begin their journey on set with Saba Sahar - an actress, screenwriter and Afghanistan's first female film director. In a country where few women work at all, Saba is directing her sixth production - a TV series about the Afghan police force. The only woman on set, Saba has complete authority, even over the real policemen who are acting as her extras. As well as directing, Saba is playing the heroine, who's a female cop succeeding in a man's world. Saba's high-profile job is provoking some of the most dangerous people in the country. The drug lords and the Taliban have threatened her life. 'Each morning when I leave the house I think I'll never see my family again. I might be killed,' she tells Kleeman. Kleeman and Lang meet Salim Shaheen, Afghanistan's most prolific film director. He's directed and starred in over 100 low-budget, high-octane movies over three decades. With a large fan base, Salim has a huge influence on ordinary Afghans. He takes Kleeman on to the film set where he's in the middle of directing a fight scene. Salim fears the departure of foreign troops from Afghanistan could mean the end of his career. 'There's going to be a civil war here,' he warns. 'If the Taliban come back, films will be banned. I'll have to leave the country.' Like Saba Sahar, Salim's life has been threatened. 'Every second we are under threat,' he tells Kleeman. 'Every minute our lives are in danger.' The team meets a Taliban fighter. He tells Kleeman that cinema goes against their interpretation of Sharia law and should be outlawed. He has a warning for Salim and Saba: 'They should be told that what they are doing is wrong first,' he says. 'If that doesn't stop them, we will punish them according to Sharia law.' The punishment, he says, is death. Everyone the team meets is convinced the Taliban will soon be back in power, and Afghanistan will soon return to fundamentalism. But Kabul's DVD bazaars are booming. Salim takes Kleeman into a market where one trader says he sells up to 1400 copies of a newly released film per day. There's a huge appetite for home-grown cinema. Salim and Saba have already paid a high price for making films: Saba has been rejected by her wider family, and Salim lost eight crew members in a rocket attack on one of his sets. He shows Kleeman footage of the aftermath. 'I'll continue in their name,' he says. 'I'm prepared to sacrifice myself. I'll never give up making films.' Salim and Saba have more sacrifices ahead: the Taliban want them to suffer for believing in the freedoms promised by the west.