03 October 2009

Film review: Afghanistan, Messengers from a Dark Past (2007), by Hossein Sadre and Florence Gavage, *****

Synopsis
Having been ravaged by over twenty-five years of civil war and strife, Afghanistan has today lost nearly all that made up its rich cultural past, as well as the pride of its inhabitants, in the days when caravans trod across the Silk Route. Long before these dark years, the various Afghan clans had already seen internal conflicts caused by their geographic isolation and the resulting political and social weakness. The principle of “divide and rule” became very easy to apply to these peoples who had no thirst for conquest.

This documentary goes back to the very early periods in the history of Afghanistan and its most ancient inhabitants, some 2.000 years ago: The Hazaras.

Over the centuries, they were colonized and their identities gradually eroded. From Arab conquests to the rule of the British-backed Amir Abdul Rahman Khan in the 1870s, right up to the Taliban, who destroyed the Bamyian Buddhas with the help of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, a century of persecution, torture and humiliation finally subdued the Hazara people who were left without even a strand of hope.

You can view this film on Youtube by kind concession of the authors:

You can view Part 1/2 here:


You can view Part 2/2 here:

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