Afghan filmmaker Sahraa Karimi dreams to go back to her homeland

The Afghan filmmaker Sahraa Karimi, who recently fled Afghanistan after the Taliban took over, still wishes that she can return to her country eventually.

Karimi, the first female chairperson of the Afghan Film organisation, has been attending multiple events virtually including the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto International film Festival to share her experience as a refugee and how she hopes to get support for Afghan cinema and its filmmakers in the process. 

Karimi still wonders if she holds her position at Afghan Film under the Taliban-controlled government. She said, "This is the reality. They don`t tell me that I am not the general director of Afghan Film but they don`t tell me anything else," reports Wion.

She expressed that she will return to her country only if she is allowed to continue her work. However, being a woman, she is doubtful if she would be able to do so.

Karimi explained how, in Afghanistan, neither art and culture have not been prioritized in the past decades, nor has the government taken any initiatives to open new cinemas in 20 years. 

Before the Taliban took over Kabul, Karimi hoped to organize a national film festival and open new theatres in Afghanistan.

With the assistance of Slovak film and academy, Karimi fled from Kabul with her family and 2 film assistant on 17 August, via Turkish airlines, and landed in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Karimi expressed her emotions during the escape as though "It was like zombies are coming to attack you and you are running."

The director plans to turn her experience of fleeing Kabul into a feature film titled "Flight to Kabul".

She will soon join as a teacher at Italy's National Film School, located in Rome, and will also head the jury at this year's Stockholm International Film Festival. 

Appealing to young Afghan filmmakers to support the film industry of Aghanistan, Karimi said, "Do not let Afghan cinema die. Even if you are in exile."