TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Afghan director once in Cannes spotlight now in Taliban's shadow
Four years ago, Salim Shaheen was in the spotlight at Cannes, but now he spends his days confined to his home, afraid of the new Taliban regime and their clampdown on arts and music.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
In this picture taken on November 27, 2021, Afghan film director Salim Shaheen displays a print of him posing with Indian Bollywood actor Sunny Deol, during an interview with AFP in his residence in Kabul. (AFP/Aref Karimi)
F
our years ago, Afghan film director Salim Shaheen was in the spotlight at Cannes, but now he spends his days confined to his home, afraid of the new Taliban regime and their clampdown on arts and music.
Prolific and exuberant, Shaheen often speaks in the third person or as the on-screen personas developed in his 125 ultra-low-budget films.
A mention of his moment in the Cannes limelight elicits particular rapture.
"It was the most beautiful day of my life!" Shaheen cries out from his home in Kabul.
"All the French knew me. They were shouting: 'Shaheen! Shaheen!'"
The film presented at Cannes was a documentary called The Prince of Nothingwood, produced by journalist Sonia Kronlund, which followed Shaheen as he made his 111th film.
The 56-year-old still savours the memory of the minutes-long standing ovation he received after the documentary's press screening at Cannes.
More from The Weekender
Jakarta’s padel moment
From FOMO to full-blown obsession, padel has captured the city. What comes next may depend less on courts and more on the communities that grow around them.
The battle over memory
And why the government’s plan to rewrite its history books should alarm us all.
Are younger workers getting something right about work?
As micro-retirements gain traction, Gen Z and young millennials are challenging traditional ideas of ambition, success and when it’s okay to pause.
