THREE SONGS FOR BENAZIR
DIRECTED BY GULISTAN MIRZAEI, ELIZABETH MIRZAEI
AFGHANISTAN // 2021
23 MINS
The story of Shaista, a young man who, newly married to Benazir and living in a camp for displaced persons in Kabul struggles to balance his dreams of being the first from his tribe to join the army with the responsibilities of starting a family.
Reflective Encounters
“It is daytime, and Benazir listens to a song on her radio, leaning against the wall of the home she shares with her husband Shaista, in a camp for people displaced by war in Kabul. The lyrics ring out: “how quickly time is passing/my youth is fading”, she closes her eyes to listen.
These lyrics encompass this moving documentary filmed over the course of four years in Afghanistan - time that seems to pass as swiftly as sand. We follow Shaista - an ambitious and loving young man - as he tries to provide for his new family while struggling to fulfil his goal of joining the army. Elizabeth and Gulistan Mirzaei’s observational lens has a quiet power in how gently it holds its subjects, allowing us to feel their dedication to each other. It’s hard not to fall in love with Shaista, and wish for his well-being.
The beauty of this film is derived from its tenderness. We are so sadly accustomed to traumatic stories coming from this displaced landscape. But while Three Songs for Benazir carries the weight of a wartorn country and lack of opportunity, there is hope in the warmth we see on screen and the songs of love that Shaista sings as they carry through the air.”
— Malaika Kegode
Filmmaker Q&A
A Q&A with filmmakers from the My Way programme at Encounters Film Festival 2021.
Filmmakers - Gulistan Mirzaei and Elizabeth Mirzaei (Three Songs for Benazir), Sheona McDonald (Into Light) and Inès Girihirwe (Breaking Ground)
Hosted by Gaia Meucci-Astley, Short Film Programmer.
Director’s Statement
Three Songs for Benazir, a passion project that has haunted my professional and waking life for over five years, is small film that distills all the large ideas of love into the unlikely frames of Shaista and Benazir, two Afghan teens in a Kabul displacement camp.
You may feel you have seen these faces before, this garb, this landscape, this dust framed usually in the language of war and news. But I am from here. And I have tried to rip out the tired, hollowed out — yes even obsolete — grammar for this world. My world. And through cinema, now our world.
Filmmaker Bio
Gulistan Mirzaei is an Afghan director of nonfiction cinema. Born in Afghanistan, he later grew up as a refugee in Iran. He assisted the Editor in Chief of Kabul Weekly, the first independent newspaper to be published in Kabul after the departure of the Taliban.
Gulistan was mentored by award-winning director Siddiq Barmak (OSAMA). His first feature film, LAILA AT THE BRIDGE, received the IDFA Bertha Fund, and picked up awards at numerous festivals including CPH:DOX, Bergen, and Santa Barbara.