The Real Afghanistan

Think of Afghanistan and you’ll be confronted with images of war, violence and danger. Google Afghanistan and you’ll get a toppling news feed of civilian casualties, a war that has left a country distraught for more than ten years, political promises to pull out, grandiose claims that This Will End Soon. Go to Afghanistan and you can witness a country and a people that go deeper and are stronger than their daily hardships; a landscape of arrestingly spectacular mountain ranges and soaring landscapes that are largely untouched; close knit village communities studded with the unblinking eyes of locals.

Lukas Augustin spent two years living in Kabul, undertaking civil service for a humanitarian aid organization between 2006-2008. Last March he had the opportunity to visit again, this time with his camera in tow and an idea to portrait a place whose international perception has been clouded by misfortune. How fundamentally terrible is the typical Western idea of Afghanistan, in which a country is identified more by its tragedies than its triumphs? Augustin strips back this concept by capturing the natural beauty of Afghanistan as well as the kind faces that populate its terrain, sprinkled with vignettes of children cheerfully playing amongst the dust and the dirt; families sitting down for a loud, happy meal eaten with their hands.

As humbling and stunningly shot (on a Canon 5d mark ii and 7d) as the film is, Augustin is careful not to disregard the unfortunate reality of a land pillaged by war. There’s a heart wrenching, intimate moment where a tear slides down a gun-wielding soldier’s cheek; there’s visible hurt in the eyes of men, there’s the film’s dedication to Augustin‘s friend who was shot in the streets of Kabul.

Watch this film and maybe next time you think of Afghanistan you’ll remember the strength of its people and their grinning faces, rather than its sorrow and torment, and instead of its devastating headlines.

Details

• Directed by

  Lukas Augustin, Salome Augustin

• Release Date

  1 November 2011