Outside the Wire: The Forgotten Children of Afghanistan

When the Soviet troops entered Afghanistan in December 1979, Christophe de Ponfilly and Jérôme Bony made their first clandestine reportage in the Panjshir valley. "A valley against an empire" testifies to the beginning of the struggle of a young commander, Amah Shah Massoud.

After the United States mounted a covert mission to eliminate America's number-one terrorist target, celebration turned to mounting questions. Now, Peter Bergen obtains rare access to interview former CIA agents, Navy Seal operatives, and a Black Hawk pilot who reveal how the United States gathered the intelligence needed to pull off the surprise attack. He'll talk to White House and Pakistani intelligence officials, as well as neighbors of the Pakistani compound and eyewitnesses to the raid.

Damien Degueldre recounts day after day the Battle of Qala-I-Jangi, as seen by his own eyes: a young French reporter in the middle of extraordinary circumstances. Damien Degueldre caught exclusive footage of the Mazar-el Sharif uprising where John Walker – better known as the ‘American Taliban’ – was captured as he fought on Taliban frontlines. An incredible testimony on the aftermath of 9/11 and the events that took place in Afghanistan in the early days of the War on Terror.

Taking inspiration from the collaborative 1967 militant anthology film Far from Vietnam, five of the boldest and most prominent American militant filmmakers unite to create this searing (and seething) omnibus work, employing a variety of approaches to reveal the hidden costs of the United States' (and Canada's) most expensive and longest-running war. (TIFF)

Our War:Goodbye Afghanistan

Documentary exploring the experience of Soviet soldiers during the Soviet war in Afghanistan.

This landmark documentary, filmed a year before 9/11, detailed the trip by a trio of Americans to interview al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners held by the Northern Alliance deep in the Afghan mountains, revealing the terrorists’ intentions to strike against the US.

United Nations assistance mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in collaboration with Radio and television Afghanistan produced a series of documentaries that explores the last decade of efforts by UN agencies and international community to help Afghanistan rebuild the country. The documentary series examines the challenges, achievements and failures of these efforts and programmers by focusing on the most important issues such as women, police force, peace, drug, education, human rights, election, health, and children.

Documentary about the epic story of Afghanistan seen through the eyes of an Afghan warrior, independent filmmakers and a small group of independent journalists, two who died covering the story. The filmmakers spent more than 20 years documenting the Soviet occupation, the exile of millions of refugees maimed by Soviet mines, a violent civil war, the fatal alliance of the Taliban with al-Qaeda, the invasion by United States forces and people still determined to survive to this day. Filmmakers Jim Burroughs and Suzanne Bauman have a wealth of footage from more than 20 years of following this story, as well as compelling footage from the 1950s and '60s showing life in Afghanistan before the war.

What happens when a group of hairdressers from America travel to Kabul with the intention of telling Afghan women how to do hair and makeup? This engaging, optimistic documentary tracks a unique development project: a shiny new beauty school, funded in part by beauty-industry mainstays, which sets out to teach the latest cutting, coloring, and perming techniques to practicing and aspiring Afghan hairdressers and beauticians. The American teachers, all volunteers, include three Afghan-Americans returning home for the first time in over twenty years. The Beauty Academy of Kabul offers a rare glimpse into Afghan women’s lives, and documents the poignant and often humorous process through which women with very different experiences of life come to learn about one another.

Since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, Afghanistan has drawn growing international attention for its enormous reserves of rare earths and strategic minerals essential to the global energy transition. The country is believed to hold more than €1 trillion in resources, including copper, lithium, cobalt, iron, uranium, chromite, mercury, and rare earth elements, as well as valuable gemstones and gold. Often described as the “Saudi Arabia of minerals,” Afghanistan has become the focus of a geopolitical race for supplies. While Europe and the United States remain hesitant to engage with a regime accused of serious human rights abuses, countries such as China, Russia, Turkey, Qatar, Pakistan, and India are already positioning themselves in Kabul to secure access to these critical resources.

The courageous journey of Afghan women activists and refugees as they rebuild their lives in Canada. While facing their own trauma and displacement, these women work tirelessly to support the hundreds of Afghan women arriving every day.

After the Taliban takeover in 2021, LineOut follows Afghan refugees in a poetic dreamscape where a metaphoric voice reflects grief, healing, and the fragile balance between holding on and letting go.

This film - without commentary and simply accompanied by local music - relates the 1969 ascent of the north face of Kohe Shakhawr, a Himalayan peak located on the border with Afghanistan, by mountaineers Benoît Mathieu, Jacques Soubis, René Thomas, Jean-Paul Paris, Isabelle Agresti, Henri Agresti, Roger Dietz, Jean-Pierre Frésafond, Paul Gendre, Claude Jager and Félix Magnin. As is often the case in Henri Agresti's films, there is an encounter with other peoples, other cultures, documented at length in the introduction. Then, after the interminable approach, the ascent begins: distribution of camps, successive assaults on the mountain, walking on steep scree and snowy slopes, climbing on icy walls... The arrival at the summit, without the aid of oxygen devices, seems to take place in slow motion: exhaustion mixes with the joy of the victorious mountaineers who will celebrate their success on their return to base camp on August 24, 1969.

This film looks at the efforts to rebuild Afghanistan's infrastructure and culture, as seen through the eyes of women, such as former Deputy Prime Minister Sima Samar, whose fight for education and health-care rights for women and girls put them in danger. Having survived the Taliban, they are putting their lives back together.

Werner Herzog follows mountaineers Hans Kammerlander and Reinhold Messner during their expedition into climbing the Gasherbrum mountains, which has some of the most difficult peaks to be conquered, and they'll do it without the use of oxygen tanks. Herzog also takes some time to hear about their past experiences with other mountains, their personal tragedies and the reasons why they are so involved with such activity.

Against a backdrop of war and poverty, Out of the Ashes, traces the extraordinary journey of a team of young, Afghan men, as they chase a seemingly impossible dream, shedding new light on a nation beyond that of burqas, bombs, drugs and devastation. This feature-length documentary follows the Afghan cricket team in their quest against the odds to qualify for the 2011 World Cup, premiering at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on 17th June. Backed by BBC Storyville and Oscar-winning director and cricket fan, Sam Mendes, 'Out of the Ashes' follows the squad over two years as they go from playing in their shalwar-kameezes on rubble pitches to batting their way around the globe and up the international league tables.

Stand up comedian Graham Elwood's journey physically, and emotionally, as he travels through Afghanistan's war zones to entertain the embattled U.S. troops.

A journey through the parts of Afghanistan that don't normally feature in news coverage to meet some amazing people and see fascinating places. Lyse Doucet uses her many years experience in Afghanistan to show a different side of a country which has been at war for 30 years.

Featuring interviews with participants on all sides, this documentary questions Norway and the West's protracted military involvement in Afghanistan.