Kites: The Story of Kabul’s Young Video Producers (Enhanced DVD)

Afghanistan is a place full of contradictions and suffering. Under the Taliban regime, taking videos of people was prohibited and women could not operate video cameras for any reason. Jacek Szaranski travels to Afghanistan to meet up with young people who want to learn how to make video films. Also banned under the Taliban rule was kite flying, which was a favorite past time of young Afghanis. Now that the Taliban rule is diminished, the young people have once again taken up kite flying with a passion.

The youth focus their video cameras on the daily lives of their friends and families, especially as they enjoy flying kites. Kite flying becomes a symbol of freedom of expression by these young people as they produce a documentary film about their lives.

The director of this film, Jacek Szaranski, cleverly combines his own documentary footage with excerpts from the footage captured by the children. He teaches them how to create a compelling film using masterful editing, which shows the simple joys of kite flying mixed with the sadness of impoverished living conditions.

In the interviews with the children, they discuss the lack of clean water, electricity, schools for girls, and their desire to have the freedoms of a normal life. One of the boys interviewed, lost his leg when he stepped on a landmine while flying his kite. The children making the video with the help of Szaranski find other children in the streets who are symbolic of the tough lives they all experience. During the filming, a bomb explodes in a village killing a woman. The students interview her son.

Kites: The Story of Kabul’s Young Video Producers