A film titled ‘A man’s Desire for Fifth Wife’ is produced and directed by an Afghan director and the film will be screened at the International Film Festival of India in Goa, which will be held from November 20 to 30. India’s minister of information and broadcasting Manish Tewari said, “For the first time, a film produced and directed by an Afghan director would be screened.”
In a unique venture, an Indian team comprising filmmakers and technicians collaborated with Afghani directors to make A Man’s Desire for Fifth Wife, a film in Dari language. Dari is one of the two official languages in Afghanistan.
When man desires something and gets it easily, he wants more of it. As William Shakespeare said, desire of having is the sin of covetousness that seems unending.
The film “Man’s Desire for Fifth Wife” in Dari language of Afghanistan is in many ways an apt example of this. Produced under the banner of Altin Films, the film also poses several questions about male-dominated society and values set centuries earlier that continue to exist.
This is a first Private Afghani film ever been produced in last 66years on celluloid format and is been selected for screening in world premiere category at 44th international film festival to be held at Goa this year.
Indian filmmaker breaks tradition by making film in Taliban territory in Afghanistan and shares the glory of the festival.
But more than anything else, this is notable because it is the first time that a film has been made in that region by a crew that was headed by a woman associate director from India.
This is a particularly important achievement since the film was made in the orthodox Taliban territory where a woman can be stoned to death if even an inch of her body becomes visible to anyone.
For Neelofer Shama who has until now been known for volumes of work for Doordarshan, this was no mean achievement, and she is grateful to the law enforcement authorities in that region that provided her full protection as she went about unhindered with her work.
The 90-minute film (sub-titled in English) has been produced by Sabruddin Rahmani, Murad Hamidi, and Farid Yarash, the film’s casting and main director was Sediq Abedi who was the story writer as well as the main star with Shakhnaza Jabirwa. The Associate Director was Neelofer Shama while the cinematographer was Ramesh Nath. The background music of the film has been composed by Ravindra Jain, while the production design was by Sanjay Bhan. The costume designers were Hayatullah Alamyar and Emam Berdihof. The editing of the film was done in N S Studio owend by Neelofer Shama in Delhi while the film was processed at Adlabs and sound was handled on Dolby 7.1 by Empire Studio.
Along with a nine-member crew includes her husband Sanjay Bhan (Production Designer of the Film), Neelofer shot the film in 42 days in Mazar –E- Sherrif, Fariyab which is also Taliban territory. She is grateful to producer Sabruddin Rahmani & Sediq Abedi who provided the security personnel so that she could shoot without any fear.
Since local traditions do not allow young women to act, most of the women in the film are from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and only aged women are from Afghanistan, Neelofer revealed, adding that the main actress was from Afghanistan but emigrated from the country after the film was completed. The crew also had artistes from Russia and Canada. She also said she could see many local women watching her enviously from a distance.
The film has already been screened to a full house at the Boston International Film Festival in April this year.
She is also overwhelmed by the reception the film received at a press meet in Kabul in the presence of Engineer Latif who then headed the Afghan Film.
The story of the film based in a village in north Afghanistan revolves around the centuries-old culture which allows a man to have up to four wives. But the twist comes when a man wants to get married for the fifth time and attempts to force a young woman who loves someone else to marry him. The climax comes in a match of the traditional wrestling match “Buzkashi or Oghlak” using thousands of horses.
Encouraged by the love she received from Afghans, Neelofer hopes this will lead to more Indo-Afghan collaborations.
For the first time in over a decade, an Afghan film will be screened at the International Film Festival in Goa and the Dari film directed by Sediq Abedi tackles the issue of violence against women and age-old traditions. Titled ‘A Man’s Desire For a Fifth Wife’, the satire is part of the World Cinema section that has been curated for the 11-day festival. Link-Kindly find the link below for video of making of A Mans Desire for a Fifth Wife: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg8Hwic_29U&feature=c4-overview&list=UUTrhvtdJnrShygmd7t8LvcQ
Link-Article about the film by Honorable I&B Minister Shri Manish Tiwari:
Afghan film makes debut in International Film Festival of India
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-11-09/india/43854418_1_international-film-festival-icffi-golden-elephant
http://newindianexpress.com/thesundaystandard/India-Afghanistan-film-brings-Afghani-flavour-to-India/2013/07/21/article1693674.ece