Between 1996 and 2001, following the Taliban’s seizing of control after two decades characterised by warfare, a decree was imposed in Afghanistan banning all still and moving images of living things (namely people and animals). With the necessity of ID cards arrived a modification of the rule, exploited by some Taliban soldiers who took to studio backrooms to pose for high colour portraits against decorative scenes, as per the found photographs of Taliban, Magnum photographer Thomas Dworzak’s series first published in 2003.
In Egyptian filmmaker Ibrahim Nash’at’s Hollywoodgate, a new documentary following Taliban soldier MJ Mukhtar and air force commander Mawlawi Mansour in the aftermath of America’s withdrawal in August 2021, this turbulent relationship is subtly revisited. First via archive footage, in which masses of rolls of negatives are destroyed in an opening scene, and later in Mansour’s office, when a grand portrait is affixed behind his desk. Elsewhere, an official looking photographer features amongst the pair’s gun-wielding posse as they march around the former US base that gives the film its name; later, several camera phones are directed at soldiers in training.
