DUBAI: A panel of industry experts, including two Afghan female filmmakers, urged audience members at the Venice Film Festival to help protect Afghanistan’s artists after the Taliban took power following the American withdrawal from the country.
“Imagine a country without artists, a country without filmmakers. How can they defend its identity?” Sahraa Karimi, the first female president of the Afghan Film Organization, said.
She was joined by filmmaker Sahra Mani, who decided to stay in Afghanistan under Taliban rule.
“We stayed. We were optimists,” Mani said. But with the Taliban takeover, “it means we don’t have anything to fight for. We lost everything.”
