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AFGHANISTAN, A STATE OF DENIAL
Director(s):
Claire BILLET – Writer(s): Alberto MARQUARDT, Eric DE LAVARENE, Claire BILLET
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The Afghan war has shaped the beginning of the 21st century. Through the personal stories of major protagonists - among them Afghan, American and French participants - the film attempts to retrace the reasons for this failure. What led to the longest and most costly war in the history of the United States and, by comparison, shedding light on the reasons that led to the victory of the Taliban.
Treatment
The Afghan war is a case study. For years, the US government gave us one choice: “You’re either with us or against us.” There was no room for analysis, for questioning the modus operandi or for even setting a deadline to the U.S. and Nato military intervention. It’s a painful reminder of the contradictions that define Western diplomacy. For, in the end, everyone agreed that the only way out of the vicious circle was to strike a deal with the Taliban.
This change of regime has offered us the possibility to listen, to hear what the « other half » has to say. The Taliban belong to the unheard voices of Afghanistan, alongside women and men who stayed in the country, by choice or necessity. They were consumed by history. All of them together, they form the people of Afghanistan. After the Western escape, they were left with emptied buildings and growing famine. One million civil servants lost their salaries overnight....
We wish to give them “a face” in order to grasp the genuine consequences of Western policies on a wide range of issues over this long period, as seen from their own perspective…that of the decision-makers or the simple citizens.
After their earlier film, THE PRICE OF REVENGE, Eric De Lavarène and Alberto Marquardt, join forces with director Claire Billet ("Searching for Mullah Omar" /2014)