PRODUCTION STATEMENT

“ I first set foot in Afghanistan early 2002 with the aim to participate in the reconstruction effort and discover a land whose beauty I had heard from journalists and travelers. I initially came for six months but I started a production company in Kabul, and I ended up spending more than ten years in Afghanistan. The end of the Taliban regime brought a lot of optimism to the Afghan people after 25 years of invasion, civil war and oppression. The newly installed democracy allowed the revival of cultural traditions and the emergence of a vibrant art scene composed of musicians, painters, actors, dancers... Among these artists I met with a group of actors who were expressing the hopes of their people with a moving sensibility. Together, we started dreaming of a shelter for local artists and we came up with the KABULLYWOOD project – comprising of both the creation of a venue that could be used for artistic creation and the production of a feature film showcasing the dreams and struggles of the Afghan youth. Unfortunately, the situation deteriorated, insecurity rose, part of the team was injured in a bombing, we were threatened by gunmen, we almost died in a fire and the cultural centre never opened. This setback was a major disappointment but, against the odds, we managed to complete the film. It bears testimony of the Afghan art scene – a unique cultural identity inspired by Bollywood music and films, Middle-Eastern lifestyle, Iranian culture and Western hip-hop.” Louis Meunier

SYNOPSIS

KABULLYWOOD recounts the adventures of four college art students, who decide to renovate a neglected movie theatre as an act of resistance against the looming return of fundamentalists…

DIRECTOR

Louis Meunier was born in 1978 in a family living between Irak and India. He spent a lot of time travelling during his youth and eventually settled in Afghanistan in 2002. He explored the country in all directions and played buzkashi (the Afghan national equestrian sport) for 3 years in Kabul team. He started a production company to shed light on a country only known though the prism of war. His documentaries have been rewarded in many festivals. KABULLYWOOD is his first narrative feature film.