With stagings. Kabul, Film & Production of Representation, the artist, filmmaker and author Sandra Schäfer raises the questions of media and political images of “Afghanistan” in multiple ways. The city of Kabul and the cinema create stages for the counter-production of representation, for new definitions and reinterpretations of gender roles and power relations.
stagings addresses urban issues “beyond the civitas” but also keeps an eye on cultural
production, image politics and media strategies. The book presents photographs, film stills and documents from the past forty years. The highlighted films, international exhibitions and festivals predominantly explore the resistive role of gender politics in Afghanistan, with a secondary aim of undermining the instrumentalization of the “women’s question” for interventionist-political purposes.
A rich range of topics is spanned, from a staged demonstration re-enacting historical protests of women against the Taliban regime to real protests against the new Afghan family law. In interviews, Kabul filmmaker and women rights activist Diana Saqeb, award winning filmmaker Siddiq Barmak and Afghan-Canadian journalist and filmmaker Nelofer Pazira reflect on gender issues and their work. Film critic Madeleine Bernstorff examines the film Passing the Rainbow by Sandra Schäfer and Elfe Brandenburger. Portraits of actresses Aiqela Rezaie (Five in the Afternoon by Samira Makhmalbaf) and Hamida Refah (Kite Runner by Marc Foster) and the martial arts film director Saba Sahar give a closer insight to the recent film landscape of Kabul.
Sandra Schäfer
stagings. Kabul, Film & Production of Representation
metroZones/media 2, b_books, Berlin, 2009, English / ISBN 978-3-933557-99-5
Also published by Sandra Schäfer in the metroZones series: Moments of Rupture. Space, Militancy & Film. metroZones 15.