ADDICTED IN AFGHANISTAN
Afghanistan 2009 – Director: Jawed Taiman – Original language: Dari, Farsi, Pashtu – Subtitles: English – Length: 78 min.
Jabar and Zahir are just 16 years old but they have already been drug addicts for half their lives. They roam the streets of Kabul in a perpetual search for their next hit, interrupted only by attempts at detox which are damned to failure. They both have a life behind them that for western drug addicts would only just be starting at this age. However these boys are not an exception – a large proportion of the one million drug addicts in Afghanistan are minors. Present throughout this film is the question of blame. Can it be laid on the drug exporting Americans or the parents, who themselves are also addicted? Constantly looming on the margins is the element of disgrace that the sons’ addiction brings on their families. This is an intimate, sometimes unbearably, close observation of a ‘lost generation’ searching for their way out of the quagmire of addiction.
English/Original Title: Addicted in Afghanistan. Writer: Jawed Taiman & Sharron Ward. Camera: Jawed Taiman. Sound: Adrian Scott. Editing: Jason Brooks, Sharron Ward, Nigel Taylor. Music: Elias Shahna & Deen Mohammed Ghamkhwar. Production: Katalyst Productions Ltd. Producer: Sharron Ward. International Sales: Katalyst Productions Ltd. Distribution: As above.
