SMILE & WAVE
Niederlande 2003 – Director: Marijke Jongbloed – Original language: niederländisch, englisch – Subtitles: English – Length: 92 min.
The place is Kabul, capital of Afghanistan. The year is 2002, right after the war. You are a young soldier, placed under the command of the International Security Forces in Afghanistan. But how to deal with the locals, when almost no one could seem more foreign?
For a few weeks, filmmaker Marijke Jongbloed accompanied a platoon of Dutch soldiers on duty in Kabul. There commanders had given them the instruction to "Smile and wave", when they arrived. The idea behind these instructions is that if you are just open and friendly enough, people will be quicker to accept you.
But it is hard to smile at the children running beside the jeep, when you have no idea, what it is they are yelling at you. And it is hard to stand by and watch, as local police forces shoot a couple of young people dead at a demonstration.
Hate, violence and corruption are the ruling forces of post-war Afghanistan. ISAF is there to keep the peace but can seldom act. Trained for combat, the soldiers act as gate-keepers to the city. But they are also major players in a culture clash that cannot be solved with a few smiles.
Camera: Frank Moll. Sound: Hugo Helmond, Marco Vermaas. Editing: Jos Driessen. Music: Fons Merkies. Production: BIG RIVER Pictures. Producer: Vik Franke. International Sales: RNTV.
