Following the withdrawal of US soldiers from Afghanistan, the Taliban gained control of Kabul (the capital and largest city in the nation) on Sunday, followed by President Ashraf Ghani’s departure. Many journalists, photographers, and filmmakers have used film to depict the country’s dire state over the years. We look here at films that have depicted the true and heart-wrenching horrors of war. Here is a list of movies based on the Afghanistan war.
Movies based on the Afghanistan war
Osama
Siddiq Barmak’s tragic film from Afghanistan, which depicts the tale from the Afghan point of view. The film portrays a preteen girl living in Afghanistan under the Taliban dictatorship who, to help her family, disguises herself as a boy named Osama.
The Tillman Story
It is Amir Bar Lev’s award-winning documentary film. The film is about the death of Pat Tillman, a former football star who became a US Army Ranger, in Afghanistan. The movie revolves around the cover-up of the exact circumstances of his death, and also his family’s efforts to uncover the truth.
The Road to Guantánamo
Michael Winterbottom directed this heart-wrenching movie. The movie is about the captivity of three British people. In Afghanistan, cruel leaders arrested them in 2001. Later, detained by the US there for more than two years at the detention camp in Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba.
Restrepo
The Afghanistan war film, directed by American journalist Sebastian Junger and British photojournalist Tim Hetherington, follows Junger and Hetherington as they spent a year in Afghanistan on assignment for Vanity Fair, embedded with the US Army’s Second Platoon, B Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team in the Korangal Valley.
Taxi to the Dark Side
Dilawar, an Afghan peanut farmer gave up farming to become a taxi driver. Later, he died at the Bagram detention center after several days of beatings. It is likewise the subject of the Oscar-winning documentary.
Director Alex Gibney said during his victory speech for the Academy Award for ‘Best Documentary Feature,’
”This is dedicated to two people who are no longer with us, Dilawar, the young Afghan taxi driver; and my father, a navy interrogator who urged me to make this film because of his fury about what was being done to the rule of law. Let’s hope we can turn this country around, move away from the dark side and back to the light.”
Armadillo
The Danish documentary ‘Armadillo’ likewise created waves at various important award ceremonies in 2010, including the Cannes Film Festival. The film, directed by Janus Metz, is all about Danish soldiers fighting in Afghanistan.
