Short film
Love and Friendship
عشق و دوستی
Rashid Latif · 1946
Synopsis
A musical comedy about a poet and an independent young woman, two close friends. The story takes a turn worthy of Cyrano when the poet's best friend, in love with the young woman, asks him to court her in his place, and the poet puts his verses at the service of another. The male roles are played by actors from the Kabul theatre, the female roles by Indian actresses, and the songs punctuate the plot.
Context
The forty-three-minute film was shot in studios in Lahore, then in British India, and developed at the Huma studios, in co-production with an Indian company. It is regarded as the first Afghan film production, well before the first fiction films of the state body founded in 1968; audiences received it well. The complete print held by Afghan Film is in very poor condition, and only two excerpts have been digitised. In 2004 the Festival des 3 Continents included it in its history of Afghan cinema.
Who it is for
A film in Dari, today viewable in excerpts. It is best seen as a document on the beginnings of Afghan cinema.
Prizes and reception
No prizes. Well received on its release, it has since been regarded as the first Afghan film, and appears as such in the 2004 Nantes programme.
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