AVAH Collective x Cinelogue

بیگانه (Bigana)
Siddiq Barmak, Afghanistan, 1987, 40 min. Farsi with English subtitles

فیلمرغ (Elephantbird)
Amir Masoud Souheili, Afghanistan, Iran, 2018, 15 min. Dari with English subtitles

Curated by AVAH Collective and Cinelogue 

Followed by a talk with Parwana Haydar and Rehana Esmail

Join us for a screening of two short films from Afghanistan, made three decades apart. Siddiq Barmak's The Stranger follows a village woman named Sanowbar whose singing becomes a site of conflict over power, honor and tradition, while Amir Masoud Soheili's Elephantbird follows an elderly man on a precarious journey to Kabul to fulfill a final wish. Moving through rural Afghanistan across different historical moments, the films depict ordinary desires and everyday lives as they encounter relations of power, uncertainty and survival. Both films are drawn from the program Dust, Clay, Earth, Desire: Films from Afghanistancurated by Afghanistan’s Visual Arts and History (AVAH) Collective for Cinelogue in Spring 2025.

Rehana Esmail is the founder of Cinelogue.

Parwana Haydar is a London-based filmmaker, artist, curator and member of AVAH collective.

AVAH (Afghanistan’s Visual Arts & History) Collective is an independent collective and curatorial initiative that aims to research, curate, collaborate and mediate matters and materials on visual culture, arts and history from Afghanistan and its diasporas.

Cinelogue is a collaborative space for film curation, global streaming, and critical dialogue, with a strong focus on the cinema of the Global Majority.