316. The Orphanage (Parwareshghah); movie review

THE ORPHANAGE (PARWARESHGHAH)
Cert TBA

90 mins
BBFC advice: TBA

We have seen heard and read so much about Afghanistan since the Taliban took control, it is easy to forget the savage war which saw the country being taken over by the Soviet Union for more than a decade.
Yes, the Olympics of 1980 were boycotted after the invasion of the year before and the anger was still in the air when the Eastern bloc took tit-for-tat revenge in Los Angeles four years later.
Hundreds of thousands of people died during the turmoil in Afghanistan during that period and the Soviets probably wished they had never become involved.
Nevertheless, they were and for many years, Russian was taught in schools and exchange trips to cities such as Moscow took place.
Shahrbanoo Sadat’s film is set in 1989 as the Soviet Union is crumbling and, consequently, its occupation of Afghanistan is coming to an end.

However, the boys in the orphanage have no knowledge of politics and, instead, are more concerned with which female teacher they most fancy or who can provide a football for a kick-about.
The movie's focus is a teenager called Qodratollah (Quodratollah Qadiri) who is caught by police selling cinema tickets at an inflated price.
They take him to an institution which is a cross between an orphanage and a juvenile jail and he soon realises he needs to form alliances to avoid the inevitable bullies.
Meanwhile, while, his passion for Bollywood films allows him to escape into an imaginary world where his fantasies come true as musical numbers. 

Writer-director Shahrbanoo Sadat’s second feature is part of a planned five-film series inspired by her friend’s diaries.

The Orphanage reflects what it must be like to like under occupation in a country where much of the adult population has been wiped out.

And it shows how natural it is for children to want to protect their home even when adults are apparently losing their heads.

It led me to pity the poor people who have had outside forces playing war games in their homeland rather than try to give them a social and economic solution.

It is war through a child's eyes - sobering and memorable.

Reasons to watch: A convincing glimpse into Afghanistan under the Soviets
Reasons to avoid: Not a huge amount of action.

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 8/10

Did you know? During the decade of war following the Soviet invasion in 1979, Afghanistan lost an estimated 1.8 million killed, 1.5 million disabled (among whom were more than 300,000 children), and there were 7.5 million refugees. 

The final word. Shahrbanoo Sadat: "One of the biggest problems we have in financing a film like “The Orphanage” is the fact that there’s no one who shares my point of view. It’s a story about Afghanistan that doesn’t refer to the violation of women’s rights, extremists, war or terrorism – which means my stories disappoint people’s expectations about a film from Afghanistan.

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