.
Be afraid, be very afraid. In Hollywoodgate the viewer is given a truly chilling close up view as the Taliban enter and inventory a $7 billion cache of abandoned U.S. military equipment at the largest base in Kabul. Director Ibrahim Nash’at’s camera places the viewer shoulder-to-shoulder with Mawlawi Mansour, the new head of Afghanistan’s Air Force and Mukhtar, a lieutenant who dreams of fighting a war to avenge the American invasion. Mansour, a key Taliban figure whose father was killed in a U.S. airstrike, is determined to transform the group from an insurgent militia into a formal military regime. The ominous implications of underestimating the Taliban’s technical prowess take center stage as the film reveals their successful repair of American Blackhawk helicopters, culminating in a provocative flyover witnessed by emissaries from Russia, China, and Iran—an unmistakable signal of their ambitions to expand beyond Afghanistan’s borders.
The process of filming Hollywoodgate was indeed a “profile in courage” for Nash’at who faced frequent threats to his life if he didn’t portray The Taliban in a favorable light. Early on a soldier can be heard saying, “That little devil is filming us”. Then as a warning, Monsour comments loud enough for Nash’at to hear, “If his intentions are bad, he will die soon.” The Taliban viewed the film as a “Hollywoodish” rehabilitation of their image, a strategic move to secure a place at the global table alongside other world powers.
The director, Ibrahim Nash’at has made a career of filming world leaders and those in positions of power. “Most of these people were men and most wanted nothing more from me other than to be a mouthpiece for their perspective and an amplifier of their message. The Taliban’s access was based on the work I did filming world leaders. I realized that what they saw in me was someone who could feed their internal image of themselves as people of power.” Nash’at goes on to say, “I grew up in Cairo, Egypt and from a young age where I was exposed to many who portrayed the Taliban as heroes. “When the Taliban came to power (again), I was stunned. How could this happen? And what would now happen to the people of Afghanistan?” director Nash’at explained. “It haunted me. I wondered if I could gain access to the Taliban. If so, this time I pledged that I would work independently: I would show the world what the Taliban wanted me to see and also, more importantly, what I saw.
Director Ibrahim Nash’at almost gave up filming the Taliban after multiple setbacks. First, his “fixer”, who was supposed to help him gain the Taliban’s trust, stopped responding two days before his flight to Kabul. Despite this, Nash’at flew to Kabul but struggled to reach the fixer or any Taliban leaders and was running out of money. Just as he was about to leave, his translator suggested filming younger Talibs.
“He took me to the military airport to film his cousin, where I unexpectedly discovered the HollywoodGate compound,” Ibrahim explained. “This marked the beginning of my filming journey inside the compound.” the cousin said, “To film with me, you need the permission of my Amir, meaning my leader,” so I met with his Amir and after a tiring interrogation, the Amir said, “You can film but you need the permission of my Amir,” and the ladder kept getting higher until it led me to Mawlawi Mansour, who had just been appointed as the Head of the Air Forces. He directly accepted my request to film Mukhtar, so I asked to film with him too and he agreed.”
If this was cast in Hollywood, nowhere could you find a more arresting and menacing star than Monsour. It’s what makes this unnerving documentary as entertaining as a Hollywood feature. Monsour, who revels in the attention that the camera provides, allows us into his personal life as he brags to another soldier that he forced his wife, a doctor, to give her career as a condition for marriage. Once the Blackhawk Helicopters are operational he advertises his new military might during a phone call threatening the defense minister of Tajikistan with invasion.
“For someone like Mawlawi Mansour, he shows us his weaponry as a way of imagining himself in a replica of a Hollywood war film,” Ibrahim explained. “The Taliban are now learning from Hollywood, and attempting to make their own propaganda, to present themselves as heroes and world leaders like any other. We are seeing propaganda being used everywhere to create and sustain conflict, to further the idea of good guys and bad guys, to further the idea that one side is right and deserves to win and the other side is evil and deserves to lose or be destroyed. The division and hatred that propaganda sow leads only to more and and more war.”
What we don’t see, because he is holding the camera, is how Ibrahim Nash’at suffered during the year he spent with the Taliban alone and friendless making the film. He was aided greatly by one of the film’s producers,Talal Derki who had his own nightmares during the filming of Fathers and Sons (Winner of The Sundance Grand Jury Prize), where he returned to his Syrian homeland to spend over two and half years with an Islamist family. Followers of the Salafist-jihadists & Al-Nusra Front (aka al-Qaeda in Syria).
Nash’at describes how Talal offered a lifeline by telephone, “It was my first time in Afghanistan. It felt post-apocalyptic, weird and sad. The Taliban were euphoric, and you could feel their internal, power-loving monster being unleashed. I quickly became silent and began observing. When it got hard, I would remember what Talal told me: “Focus on the image in your monitor, and every scene you believe could be part of your film. The emotions you’re suppressing will later be released, but the film will last forever. Cinema always wins.” But as we see Afghanistan rarely wins.
In the early 1920’s the Afghans founded a school for girls ( Masturat School) and a woman’s magazine ( Irshad-e Naswan) promoting educational and professional reforms for women. A hundred years later The Taliban announce they will resume public flogging and stoning to death of women for adultery.
1960s and 1970s: During the Cold War, the Afghan government receives major funding from both the United States and the Soviet Union for development projects; these include the Helmand Valley Project funded by USAID and the Salang Tunnel built by the Soviet Union.
1979: President Taraki is assassinated. Destabilization in the country leads to an invasion by the Soviet Union.
After the 9/11 attacks in the U.S., the Taliban offers to extradite Osama bin Laden to a third country, a non-U.S. ally. President Bush rejects the offer. The U.S. invades Afghanistan. One can only hope the world turns away from war and extremist philosophies and embraces reason, cooperation and a path forward people are free to choose.
Splash Magazines
Be the first to comment