Movies & TV Shows from Afghanistan

In March 2001, the ruling Taliban destroyed Afghanistan's foremost tourist attraction, the 1600 year-old Buddhas of Bamiyan. This film follows the story of one of the refugees who now lives among the ruins….an eight-year-old boy named Mir.

As the U.S. planned to withdraw troops from Afghanistan in September 2021, Canadian-Afghan filmmaker and journalist Brishkay Ahmed was filming IN THE RUMBLING BELLY OF MOTHERLAND. Revealing the ongoing dangers for women reporters, and the extraordinary risks they take, this brave film provides an in-depth look into Zan TV, Kabul’s female-led news agency. A professional journalist herself, Ahmed documents both the harrowing and inspiring work of young, female journalists over the course of the two-year lead up to the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Following parallel news stories as they unfold – two sets of national elections as well as ongoing U.S.-Taliban peace talks – the film reveals the daily hurdles Afghan female reporters and media staff face, underscoring the existential current events that threaten both Zan TV as a media outlet and the livelihoods of the women at its heart.

After the death of the family's matriarch, her husband and son must confront not only the corruption in society around them but the corruption within themselves.

In the high peaks of Afghanistan, young athletes from rival villages build makeshift wooden skis and convene for a mountain race that unites the community in a moment of peace and triumph just before their country’s collapse. Champions of the Golden Valley merges the triumphant spirit of a classic underdog sports story with the heartfelt portrait of a community finding hope amid disrupted dreams. Revealing a stunning unseen side of Afghanistan, it is an uplifting exploration of what it means to be a champion – in all its forms.

The story of four kids in Afghanistan whose lives changed dramatically after US troops completed their withdrawal and the Taliban swept to power

Azim, an afghan refugee, who works at the municipality at night, lives in Tehran along with his family. Being the head of entire family, he has to choose between his own life and his mother’s whom he has always claimed as the most important one in his life.

The British Regisseur Phil Grabsky has documented an Afghan boy's life for 10 years.

Afghan documentary maker Najiba Noori offers not only a loving and intimate portrait of her mother Hawa, but also shows in detail how the arduous improvement of the position of women is undone by geopolitical violence. The film follows the fortunes of Noori’s family, who belong to the Hazaras, an ethnic group that has suffered greatly from discrimination and persecution.

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 Afghan National Army with the responsibilities of starting a family. Even as Shaista’s love for Benazir is palpable, the choices he must make to build a life with her have profound consequences.

In a war-ridden country, a woman watches over her husband, comatose from a bullet in the neck and abandoned by Jihad companions and brothers. One day, the woman decides to say things to him she could never have done before.

With the Cold War about to break out in Afghanistan, young, lifelong friends Suraya and Sima must question their life choices and moral principles when they get involved in opposite sides of the conflict.

Shot on the streets of Kabul, Granaz Moussavi’s (My Tehran For Sale) outstanding new feature is in the tradition of the great child-centred works of the 1980s when filmmakers such as Kiarostami, Panahi and Amir Naderi (to whom this film is dedicated) were putting Iranian cinema in the forefront of world production. 9-year-old Hewad is an irrepressible, street-smart kid who is energetically working every angle, hustling everything from pomegranate juice to amulets to protection from the evil eye. His real ambition is to be a movie star, and this comes a step closer when he meets an Australian photographer. But in a city where every family has a member who has been “martyred,” the streets are as perilous as they are vivid. Australia’s recent involvement with Afghanistan has been mixed, to say the best. The deeply-felt humanism of this film might just be our most effective contribution to that troubled country.

Annie Goldson and Kay Ellmers’ doco, expanded from the film they made for Maori Television, takes a timely look at New Zealand’s military and media, notably journalist Jon Stephenson, in Afghanistan.

Majedi Lala, a man worried about both his and his son's bachelorhood, sets out to find suitable wives for them. Along with his family, he visits Mama Shirin’s house, a man with four daughters—each with unique and peculiar traits. Now, they face the challenge of choosing the right bride. Who will they pick?

Little Statue" directed by Bahram Baryal, is a crime drama film. The story revolves around a gang of criminals who are hired for a mission to steal a golden statue recently discovered in Afghanistan. When their initial plan fails, they resort to kidnapping the daughter of the archaeologist who found the statue. Their goal is to force him to hand over the statue to them instead of the government. But things don’t go as planned…

In an old library, two people engage in a cryptic conversation. But this is no ordinary discussion about books—they use book titles as coded messages to secretly communicate, ensuring that even a third person or an unaware observer remains oblivious. Each book title they mention holds a deeper meaning, a hidden rule that must be followed. As their conversation unfolds, the tension builds. Will anyone uncover the truth?

In a remote area in Afghanistan, stories of the lives of a young shepherdess, a birdcatcher boy and a mourning teacher are intertwined after their school is burnt down. The young shepherdess takes the risk of saving a woman US soldier after a helicopter crash; the birdcatcher boy takes shelter in a tank with the birds, the pin-ups and the illegal music that he loves; and the mourning teacher seeks vengeance on the one who has widowed her…

Masoud and Sonny are two men who both want the same thing, open a restaurant. Unfortunately, they don't have much money. To earn money they both look for a job, until Masoud finds a job as a messenger for an important businessman. For this man, they have to take a vase to a mafia boss one day. In the meantime, Sonny has fallen in love with Soraya, who happens to be his employer's daughter. Inadvertently, Sonny involves Soraya in delivering the vase.

After the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the restriction of women in public life, a preteen girl is forced to masquerade as a boy in order to find work to support her mother and grandmother.

Kabul - a city struggling to recover from 25 years of warfare. Taxi driver Khaled picks up a woman and baby. Her face is hidden behind a blue burka. They settle on a price, she pays him and they drive off. The taxi arrives at its destination. The woman gets out and a new passenger climbs in... to find the baby still in the backseat. Khaled leaps out after the woman but she's vanished. He's left holding the baby - a 6-month-old boy. Who is the mother? How can he find her? He asks friends and strangers in the street. He returns to where he picked her up. Nothing. Fate has handed him a young life for which he feels more and more responsible. An eventful, chaotic, often highly comic journey through a city which is itself simply trying to survive. Poignant, rich, vibrant, Barmak Akram's debut feature is a remarkable portrait of one man's emotional awakening in a city returning to crazy life after 25 years of violent conflict.

Story of young students from diverse cultures and from different Afghan ethnic groups, who make their worldviews and theories and are struggling with severe contradictions and challenges that disrupt the order of their daily lives.

In 2007, a local TV station in Mazar-I-Sharif, Afghanistan aired a reality television show modeled after the America's Next Top Model. International media took notice and dubbed the show Afghanistan's Next Top Model.

Afghan game show version based on the original British format of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?".

Ganjina is the Afghani version of the television gameshow Deal or No Deal. It premiered on May 30, 2010 and is broadcast on Tolo TV. The show was earlier hosted by the afghani actor Rahim Mehrzad and was later taken over by Mukhtar Lashkari. There are 20 boxes containing prizes from 1 Afghani to 1,000,000 Afghani. There has been three top prize winners. The last episode was aired on May 14, 2013. From May 15 to June 6, 2013 was a rerun of notable episodes, including celebrity editions and two of the top prize winning episodes. On June 8, 2013, the show was replaced by new game show 100 saniye, an Afghani adaption of Divided.

Afghan Star is a popular reality television show which searches for the most talented singers across Afghanistan. The program is broadcast on Tolo TV channel.

Baghch-e-Simsim is a Pashto and Dari children's television series based on the American Sesame Street, which was officially launched in Afghanistan on December 1, 2011. Characters appearing will include Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Elmo, Abby Cadabby, Grover as Kajkoal, and Ernie as Hadi along with Bert. However, it was reported that Oscar the Grouch and Count von Count will not be featured due to cultural differences. The project is funded by the Embassy of the United States in Kabul and is produced in consultation with Afghanistan's Ministry of Education. The show's producer is Tania Farzana, an Afghan-American, and its initial 26 half-hour episodes are being aired in Dari language on locally owned Tolo TV. The Pashto version will be aired on Lemar TV. Education in Afghanistan is very low and Baghch-e-Simsim is designed to help with that, especially Afghan children because about 45% of the population is younger than 15. Sesame Street was first introduced to Afghanistan in 2004 as Koche Sesame, which was shown on state-owned television and as a teaching tool within some schools in the form of DVDs. One of the segments was "Grover Around the World", based directly on the Global Grover segments of the American original. The new Baghch-e-Simsim version "will be partly filmed in Afghanistan with the rest lifted from other versions in Muslim countries including Egypt and Bangladesh", as well as Mexico and Russia.

It is a joint Iranian-Afghan series that depicts the love story and immigration problems of several young people and immigrant families in Germany.

Eshghe Shirin

Social humor about the living conditions of Afghans living in Europe. Writer and director Khalil Yousefi Actors Saeed Hooshmand Nilab Nova Diana Mirza