Addicted in Afghanistan

There are more than a million drug addicts in Afghanistan, including a shockingly high percentage of children. Addicted in Afghanistan, the feature-length debut of director Jawed Taiman, is about the teenagers Jabar and Zahir, both of whom are from Kabul and come from families that have been ravaged by drugs. Zahir used opium for the first time when his drug-addicted mother gave it to him at age eight, and the two boys spend their days looking for their next heroin score. The film sketches an intimate portrait of their lives in the slums of the city, where they smoke heroin in their decrepit houses or leave the detox clinic for the umpteenth time. But there are also some lighthearted moments, such as when Jabar and Zahir exuberantly pull the legs of passersby in broken English in the opening scene. And between the lines, the political situation of their broken country also gets adequate attention: while Jabar and Zahir blame the Americans for introducing heroin to Afghanistan, Zahir’s mother knows better — it was the Taliban that got her addicted. Taiman does not try to maintain an objective distance, but makes passionate attempts from behind his camera to change Jabar and Zahir’s literally hopeless lives.—IDFA