My Childhood, My Country:

20 Years in Afghanistan

Phil Grabsky and Shoaib Sharifi tackle life in Afghanistan in an outstanding and emotionally involving documentary.

I have long been aware of Phil Grabsky as the director of distinguished and highly intelligent documentaries about the art world: films about Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn and Chopin and numerous studies of painters. What I had not expected from him was a film as different in character as this work about life in Afghanistan in the 21st century. I must acknowledge, however, that my surprise when seeing My Childhood. My Country: 20 Years in Afghanistan was due to the fact that I had not come across its two predecessors made in 2004 and 2011 respectively. All three films focus on an Afghan named Mir Hussein, but it is probably an advantage rather than a disadvantage to be unfamiliar with the earlier works since this latest piece looks at Mir Hussein's life from the age of seven onwards and accordingly incorporates considerable footage from those past pictures.

This new work takes us up to 2021 and starts with Mir declaring that what follows is "my story and the story of my country". That is exactly what Phil Grabsky, here sharing the directorial credit with Shoaib Sharifi, has chosen to give us and what makes their film so special is their realisation that viewing the tragic history of Afghanistan over the past twenty years by tracing in some detail the life of one young individual adds remarkable resonance to the film’s depiction of what was happening to the country in general. It increases our understanding of the impact of the Taliban, of the tensions created by the presence of the Americans and of other foreign forces and also of the fears caused by frequent incidents involving suicide bombers.

The struggle of the country’s poor people to survive comes across the more potently because it is seen in the context of the life story of a young boy who early on becomes a refugee. At this stage we see Mir and his family living in caves only later being able to return to their own village. This is followed by Mir moving to a town for greater security and then another move brings him to Kabul where he discovers the harshness of life on the streets until by good fortune he becomes a news photographer, by which time it is 2017. Following his life year by year makes us identify strongly with his situation and the impact of that is further increased by his being filmed over the years so that we literally see him grow from child to young man in front of the camera. In turn that makes us appreciate all the more what the country itself is going through. 

Grabsky's wide experience as a filmmaker, albeit usually of very different material, means that due thought has been given to all aspects here. That includes the fast moving but always clear narrative (all credit to the editor Clive Mattock) and the fine photography of very varied locations which is so impressive that the film should be seen if possible in a cinema (both directors share this credit as well while additional footage was shot by Mir himself). Admirably astute too is the way in which the film so neatly puts across the relatively well-known history by way of film clips and broadcasts - never too much of this is used but always enough. Similarly, the film is very well judged regarding the amount of footage devoted to Mir’s parents, to the marriage which is set up for him and to his subsequent home life with his wife and children. My only criticism concerns the decision to bring the film full circle about twenty minutes before the end: ahead of telling Mir’s story chronologically, there had been a short opening sequence revealing a key moment in his life and returning to this incident does lead to a sense of an ending being imminent. That’s hardly appropriate when quite a lot of detailed material has yet to follow. But that's a small point. Grabsky and Sharifi can be proud of giving us a very human document, one that captures vividly what Afghanistan has suffered. At the close Mir Hussein is determinately optimistic about the future of the country that he loves. We may not be able to share his view, but that only renders his situation and that of Afghanistan the more poignant.

MANSEL STIMPSON

Featuring  Mir Hussein, Shukria Sakhizada.

Dir Phil Grabsky and Shoaib Sharifi, Pro Phil Grabsky and Amanda Wilkie, Screenplay Phil Grabsky, and Shoaib Sharifi, Ph Phil Grabsky, Shoaob Sharifi and Mir Hussein, Ed Clive Mattock, Music Asa Bennett, Dmitri Tchamouroff and Richard Durrant.

Seventh Art Productions/Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR)/ARTE-Bomanbridge Media. Available in cinemas and on Seventh-Art.com.
90 mins. UK. 2021. UK Rel: 20 September 2022. No Cert.