| Date | Time | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Wednesday, November 13, 2019 | 8:00PM - 9:30PM | External Event, Innis Town Hall Theatre, 2 Sussex Avenue |
Please note that the registration is now CLOSED.
Same-day rush tickets will be available from 7 PM on the night of the show.
Feature Presentation
WHAT WE LEFT UNFINISHED
Afghanistan/USA 2019
71:00
Dari with English subtitles
PG • Toronto Premiere
DIRECTOR
Mariam Ghani
CAST
Latif Ahmadi
Hossain Fakhri
Said Miran Farhad
Juwansher Haidary
Wali Latifi
Faqir Nabi
Yasamin Yarmal
OFFICIAL SELECTION
2019 Berlinale Forum
2019 SFFILM
2019 Sheffield Doc/Fest
From 1978 to 1991, the Afghan Films Institute had been producing propaganda features to fit with the times. This documentary follows the incredible story of five of these unfinished works from Afghanistan’s Communist era, when the constantly shifting political regimes resulted in films remaining unfinished, unedited, and thought to be destroyed.
In her debut feature, Mariam Ghani pieces fragments of this once-lost footage, from The April Revolution (1978), Downfall (1987), The Black Diamond (1989), Wrong Way (1990), and Agent (1991), unedited (and therefore, uncensored). Just as the original filmmakers did when they shot action scenes with real bullets, hired ex-agents to play spies, or restaged the Communist coup d’état with the army, air force, and an awful lot of tanks and missiles, What We Left Unfinished interweaves histories and fictions. Ultimately, we come to understand both the price paid by Afghan filmmakers for the benefits they gained under Communism and the reasons they persisted despite the risks they faced—and why they still believe that film could save Afghanistan from the divisions tearing it apart today.
DIRECTOR BIO
Mariam Ghani’s previous projects in Afghanistan have documented the spatial politics of the post-war constitutional assembly, real-estate speculations in reconstructed Kabul, afterlives of former secret prisons, diasporic translators in theatres of war, and forgotten histories of Afghan modernists, artists and intellectuals. What We Left Unfinished is her first feature.
This screening will be followed by a discussion moderated by Shahrzad Mojab, a scholar, teacher, and activist, internationally known for her work on the impact of war, displacement, dispossession, and violence on women’s learning and resistance. She is professor of Adult Education and Community Development and Women and Gender Studies at the University of Toronto, and currently, the Director of Equity Studies at New College.
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