Directed by Mariam Ghani
Featuring Latif Ahmadi, Said Miran Farhad, Hosain Fakhri, Juwansher Haidary and Wali Latifi
Runtime: 1 hour and 11 minutes
In theaters  and virtual cinemas August 6th with a live Q&A event at Laemmle Playhouse in Pasadena, CA on August 5th and a virtual Q&A event via BAMPFA on August 9th

by Benjamin Leonard, Managing Zine Editor, Best Boy

I’m not gonna lie. The first thing that interested me about this movie was the look of the five incomplete films that are at the center of Mariam Ghani’s debut feature length documentary What We Left Unfinished. Created between 1978 and 1991, the clips from these films have a similar look and feel to American action-espionage-dramas of the time but the colors and budgets for the nationalized Afghani films were both bigger, making them feel more immersive. It was a world I wanted to dive into. But that’s not all I got.

In the brief 71 minute runtime, Ghani manages to not only provide the synopsis of each of these films but also discuss their production, give a look into the lives of the actors and filmmakers through interviews, paint a picture of the cultural landscapes of the time and, most importantly, educate outsiders like me via a history lesson so we can better understand Afghanistan’s more recent political situations. This isn’t to say that watching the movie ever feels like homework. Ghani does an excellent job of weaving the stories together, providing context as well as narrative. Rather than unloading massive amounts of exposition and various talking heads, she uses her time to provide more recent reactions from a select few that were involved with the productions at the time. 

The tale of these incomplete films all starts with The April Revolution. Hafizullah Amin was the main organizer of the Communists’ Saur Revolution that ousted the Afghan royal family in 1978. In September of 1979, he staged a coup and took charge of the party and funded the making of the film in order to tell his version of the revolution and promote his image. The filmmakers decided to have Amin play himself and there are several harrowing tales from their shoot. The production was brought to an abrupt halt when, after four months of rule, the Soviets decided they were done with Amin’s style of governing and assassinated him, installing Barbrak Karmal in his place. The film was shelved, but what remains are some gruesome scenes depicting the slaughter of the royal family at their dinner table.

What We Left Unfinished goes on to discuss the heyday of Afghan Films under Soviet rule. Money was no object, as long as the stories depicted what the Soviets felt was the truth. However, “The Truth” can be a rather subjective thing. At times the Afghan government would stand behind what the filmmakers wanted to say, but often the Soviets had the final say. Multiple cars would be provided in order to be blown up for as many takes as it needed for a single scene. However, money can’t always solve scarcity. Blanks were not readily available in Afghanistan and scenes were generally shot with live rounds. Fortunately, many of the actors had been soldiers and were usually (but not always) experienced enough to not injure their coworkers.

Chronologically, the next unfinished film discussed was Downfall which was about drug smugglers but with a bit of a love story tied in too. Again, political unrest caused the end of the production. The Soviets removed Karmal and replaced him with Mohammad Najibullah in 1987. He ruled until Kabul fell to the Taliban in 1992. 

Of the last three films discussed, The Black Diamond from 1990 and Agent from 1991 were a bit “edgier”, dealing with the complexities of drug smuggling and the heroin trade in Afghanistan. The Soviets, the installed Afghan government and the anti-communist Mujahideen all saw a profit from this deadly trade. Telling these stories the “wrong way” was sure to upset at least one of them. More than just crime stories, these films dealt with the social and political nature of these issues as well.  

Wrong Way from 1991 is a love story that is complicated by an ethnic divide. It’s the type of story that any dumdum westerner is dying to compare to Romeo and Juliet (myself included) but there’s not a mention of Shakespeare here. That was a subtle but important reminder for me. You may think of one work being the epitome of a story, but most tales are universal. 

These three films never saw completion due to rising troubles with the Taliban. Once they took over, hundreds of films were destroyed. The various people interviewed discuss at what point they had to abandon their work, Kabul, Afghanistan or all of the above. They provide their reflections on the various times, what things are like now and their reactions to the rediscovery of their old footage.

As the US is pulling our support from the Afghan forces, get to know a little more about what really led us to where we are now. Neither preachy nor pushy, What We Left Unfinished manages to give you some history and expose you to different cultures in an entertaining, engaging and visually captivating way. I’m really glad I checked this out.