Hollywoodgate
An intrepid filmmaker tracks the Taliban’s first year in power in the wake of the United States’ Afghanistan withdrawal, centering on an air force chief and a low-level fighter as the fundamentalist sect takes over a former American military base known as the Hollywood Gate complex.
Producer Odessa Rae scheduled to attend.
Please note: Streaming is restricted to audiences in WA State.
*Restricted to audiences in WA State.
“[M]esmerically disturbing”—Jessica Kiang, Variety
“Why is he filming?” one member of the Taliban asks another about the director of Hollywoodgate early in the film. The other replies, “He is making a documentary. It’s like a movie but with real people. Documenting our everyday lives, both civilian and military, for a year. If his intentions are bad, he will die soon.” These are the conditions under which Ibrahim Nash’at, an Egyptian journalist and filmmaker, chronicled the Taliban takeover of a former U.S. military base, claimed to be a deserted CIA base, in Kabul, beginning just days after the hasty withdrawal of the U.S. Army. Improbably, Nash’at has been allowed to follow and film two men now stationed at the base: Talib lieutenant Mukhtar (whose brother was killed by U.S. soldiers) and his superior officer Malawi Mansour, the head of Afghanistan’s Taliban-controlled air force. As part of the larger project of transforming a militia into a military regime, Mansour’s first order of business is to take stock of what the Americans have left behind. He surveys a warehouse stocked with crates of medicine and office cubicles littered with smashed computers, as well as valuable military equipment, weapons, and aircraft. “The Americans,” he observes, “have left behind a treasure trove.”
- Director: Ibrahim Nash’at
- Country: Germany, USA
- Year: 2023
- Running Time: 91 min.
- Producer: Talal Derki, Odessa Rae, Shane Boris
- Screenplay: Ibrahim Nash’at, Talal Derki, Shane Boris
- Cinematographers: Ibrahim Nash’at
- Editors: Atanas Georgiev, Marion Tuor
- Music: Volker Bertelmann
- Website: Official Film Website
- Awards: Adelaide Film Festival 2023 (Best Documentary), Zurich 2023 (Best International Feature)
- Filmography: Debut Feature Film
- Language: Pashto, Dari, English
- Has Subtitles: Yes
- International Sales: Cinephil