In 2017, he paraded on the red carpet of the Cannes Film Festival. But four years later, Salim Shaheen, a colorful Afghan director with 125 B movies to his credit, is holed up at his home in Kabul, terrified of the Taliban.
Salim Shaheen is exuberance embodied. He laughs loudly, shouts, throws his hands up to the sky. The 56-year-old likes to speak about himself in the third person and behaves like he’s starring in one of his low-budget Afghan Bollywood movies. So when we ask him about his memories of the Cannes film festival, he explodes.
“It was the happiest day of my life!”, he said, waving. “All the French know me. They were shouting ‘Shaheen! Shaheen ! ‘. I was surprised that they knew me, then I realized that my film was already in theaters. “ In reality, it was not “his” film that was shown at Cannes, but a documentary about him, Nothingwood, in which journalist Sonia Kronlund followed Shaheen making his 111th film.
The Afghan director and actor was greeted with a standing ovation lasting several minutes after the press screening, as AFP wrote at the time.
This time seems very far away. Even though Salim Shaheen, a well-known filmmaker in his country, has not received a direct threat from the Taliban, he now lives in fear of the radical Islamists who seized power in mid-August after two decades of insurgency. “I’m scared. I’m staying at home. (…) I’m not an ordinary guy to go out and walk in the street. I’m Salim Shaheen, I’ve made 125 films”, he said, taking on his most serious expression.
When the Taliban arrived in Kabul on August 15, he burned dozens of movie posters. There are only two left in the empty room, where, he says, he received all of Kabul for screenings.
Of course, he tried to leave Afghanistan in August. He was, he said, on French lists. “I had to leave the day the explosion happened at the airport. We were the fourth vehicle to enter the airport when the explosion took place. We received a message asking us to leave the area. “ The attack claimed by the Islamic State organization left more than 100 dead on August 26.
Since then he is “stuck here”, with the twelve members of his family. “All the actors and actresses in my films are now in France. (…) I want to go to a place where I can resume the cinema.”
Because his cinema does not really stick with the Afghanistan of the Taliban. He draws his inspiration from Bollywood. His films flirt with all genres, action, drama, comedy, detective … We sing (often wrong), we dance, we play while shouting. A cinema in its image, exuberant, and also improvised, made of odds and ends. “Most of my films deal with social issues, violence against women, drugs, never political questions.”
In Kabul, saying his name usually triggers a smile. The character is known for his knack for exaggeration. Its cinema is not to the taste of educated Afghans, but has found its audience among the popular classes. “People in the conversations were picking up lines from my films”, he said. “Bigi khuda”, Where “control yourself”, just like “Maza sare maza”, “joy after joy”, had found their place in the streets for a while.
At the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, we insist that “films against Afghan culture and Islamic culture are not allowed”. Nothing specific about Salim Shaheen: “I haven’t seen his movies so I can’t comment”, is satisfied to say a spokesperson. But in mid-November, this ministry called on Afghan televisions not to broadcast any more series showing women, within the framework of new “religious directives”.
“It’s impossible to make films without a woman”, comments Salim Shaheen. “Cinema is dead in Afghanistan, and Salim Shaheen is dead with it!“, proclaims the director. He has just finished editing his last three films, without knowing if they will one day be broadcast. So, failing to play in front of the camera, he has fun in the small courtyard of his house: he takes poses without being asked and begins to fidget to play one of the characters who were so dear to him.