USA / AFGHANISTAN: Filmmaker Wazhmah Osman talks about tracing her roots back to the Afghanistan she fled after the 1979 Soviet invasion

When she set out to make a film about women in Afghanistan, film maker Wazhmah Osman was struck by the devastation that had occurred in the country she knew as a child. As her memories started to resurface, Osman realized she was filming a very personal story and the film took a turn of its own. Instead of making a film about other women, Osman chronicled her own tale, one of a woman searching for her people, her home and a father that she was forced to part with almost 20 years ago. "I knew that things would've obviously changed, I read the papers, I watch the headlines and I watch the news but I still for some reason thought that I'm still gonna find my old Kabul back," Osman said. "Until I was 10 I was in that area so I just thought I was going find some resemblance, some semblance of what it was, and I didn't. I didn't find anything, and so that was really, really difficult." Turning the camera on herself was not easy for the director. She says that becoming involved with the story is what documentary makers are not supposed to do. Once the camera was rolling, Osman says she felt vulnerable in a way she hadn't ever felt; as she tries to reconnect with her childhood and explore her country's recent history, she is also forced to face the long- estranged father she's never really known. "With my father, that was one aspect of the story that I was particularly reluctant and I think you can elaborate, about sharing things, because I guess I had harbored so much anger. I still have some resentment even after I went through all this process, but it did help me to see how important his work there was. But I didn't want to kind of reveal my relationship and feelings about that, but it turned out to be an integral part of the story." Trained as a psychiatrist, her father was imprisoned by the Communist regime, and after being tortured and placed in solitary confinement, emerged a different man. While his wife and family decided to flee to safety in America, he resolved to stay and fight for his country. As the memories became heavier and the filming more intense, co-director Kelly Dolak stepped in as an integral part of the balancing act. Dolak says it was difficult to see her directing partner going through such painful emotional moments, but she recognized how critical these moments were to bring the film full circle. "It wasn't just shooting a subject that you get to know, I'd known her for a long time. So, it was very emotional and very difficult to keep that line. And I think that translates into the language of film itself, it feels very intimate. That's what audiences have been saying it's like you really feel like you're there." Osman's film is showing at the Tribeca Film Festival this week, which continues through May 5th. Her father has come to the U.S. for the film's premiere, and to try to build a bridge to the family he lost so long ago in his war-torn country.

ITN Source | May 9, 2007

Tags:. .documentary. .safety. .premiere. .bridge. .audiences