Synopsis:

Libya was only ever associated with one face: Gaddafi’s. But in February 2011 it suddenly arrived on the world stage with many. 

Women played a key role in the Libyan revolution, initiating the first protests, lobbying, smuggling arms and cooking food on the frontlines. In the first national elections, women were voted in as key decision makers. However, after this hopeful first step, the country took a different path and women have now been squeezed out of the equation yet again. Civil war, on-going assassinations and the rising presence of war lords and extremism is not the Libya these women, or anyone, had fought for…

Freedom Fields is the story of three accidental activists and their team. The three women play for their country’s female football team. They are friends, coming from different social and political backgrounds, different tribes, different classes and living in an environment plagued by war, paranoia, social constraints and corruption. 

“Freedom Fields is a film about having the power to dream, to have a choice to carve your own future, against privilege, and to impact those around you, even if just for 90 minutes on a field.” – Naziha Arebi

Sadaf Rahimi is the most accomplished female boxer in Afghanistan and well known within her community in Kabul, though her talent attracts social ridicule as well as fame. With the encouragement of her school teacher, Sadaf joined the newly-created women’s boxing team at the age of 13 once her family had returned to their country after being refugees in Iran.

One in a group of 30 girls coached by Saber Sharifi, Sadaf trains in Kabul’s Ghazi Stadium – the same stadium used as a venue for public executions under the Taliban government in the late 1990s. Granted permission by their parents to participate in the boxing team, Sadaf and her teammates represent changing perspectives towards women’s roles in Afghan society. Qualifying for some of the most prestigious competitions in the world, the girls’ outlook towards tradition is influenced by their experiences abroad. At the same time, many of the girls are criticised by their classmates and neighbours for having left Afghanistan.

Sadaf’s boxing and academic achievements have led her into public visibility and turned her into a role model for many Afghan young women – although her athletic career has been jeopardised by death threats and interference from the Afghan Boxing Association, which barred her from travelling to compete in the 2012 London Olympics.

Allowing Sadaf to speak for herself, filmmakers Silvia Venegas and Antonio Amador create an inspiring portrait of a confident and ambitious Afghan woman who is fully supported by her family, yet caught in a changing society where government institutions continue to impose strict social restrictions.

Directed by: Silvia Venegas and Antonio Amador
Country: Spain
Year: 2015
Runtime: 75’

“We used to say health to the people. Now we say health to the rich only.”

On Monday 3 February 2014, the Frontline Club screened the UK premier of Putin’s Olympic Dream. Director Hans Pool shone light onto the crooked nature of Putin’s very own “fake smile.” Behind the facade of the Sochi Olympics is a world where the elderly are uprooted to make way for ice rinks and where 50–70% of migrant workers are deported without pay after months of exploitation.

Director Hans Pool. Photo credit: George Symonds

Pool began the Q&A by describing the film – initially conceived as part of The Sochi Project – as his most difficult project to date. He talked of run-ins with the FSB and interviewees who would refuse further participation after being threatened.

In response to a question about managing the risk to people who spoke on film, Pool said:

“When we were filming, they only told us stories they really wanted to tell us. There was no pressure from us to tell really bad stories.”

However, he was only able to find one human rights defender in Sochi willing to speak to the filmmakers:

“It was very difficult. . . . They are very scared to talk about those things. He was the only one.”

Asked by audience members about navigation of visa restrictions and the more opaque elements of the Russian authorities, Pool described the situation as, “always a kind of cat and mouse”.

A crew member in attendance told a tale of sabotage:

“There were a few cars chasing us all the time. I’m Russian actually, so I was kind of embarrassed because of that, so I went up to them and said, ‘What are you doing? You’re embarrassing me and all the Russians, and we know you’re following us.’ They just acted like nothing was going on.

 

“We were actually laughing about it all the time,” she continued, “and going to this one restaurant every evening. But when we got back we figured out that actually every night we were sitting in the restaurant they were entering our hotel rooms. They managed to destroy all the [memory] discs we were using to film. We just figured it out when we got back to Moscow and when we sent the discs back to the Netherlands they couldn’t open them. When the Sony company, in the end, opened them they saw they were scratched. . . . Well we flew back and filmed everything again in one day, . . . but that was really frightening.”

Project participant Valery Molozov

When asked whether members of the International Olympic Committee had seen the film, Pool said he did not know, however: “For me it’s a big question why they organise those Olympic games in countries like Russia or in Beijing. I really don’t understand. It has to do with a lot of money. You know there’s a lot of corruption.”

“What do you think about boycotting the games?” posed another member of the audience.

“Boycotting the games, I don’t know,” responded Pool. “You have to protest. If you’re going there as a supporter or as a politician you have to discuss these things. I think that’s very, very important. . . . I think it’s very important not to shut your mouth, but to discuss it and to get it in the open. It’s terrible for those workers, because they’re paying for the Olympic games, actually. . . . It’s really a shame out there.”

Putin’s Olympic Dream will be screened at the Lexi Cinema in London on 13 February. It will also be screened in Bratislava, Slovakia, on 10 February through the Frontline Club’s International Partners project.

An inspirational documentary following the extraordinary quest of the Afghan cricket team to qualify for the 2011 World Cup. Against a backdrop of war and poverty, Out of the Ashes, traces the remarkable journey of a team of young Afghans as they chase a seemingly impossible dream – shedding new light on a nation beyond burqas, bombs, drugs and devastation.

Backed by BBC Storyville and Executive Produced by Oscar-winning director and cricket fan, Sam Mendes, the film follows the Afghan cricket squad over two years as they go from playing in their shalwar-kameezes on rubble pitches to batting their way around the globe and up the international league tables. The film reveals a more human side to this beleaguered country which has been occupied almost continuously for three decades. It travels from refugee camps in Pakistan – where many of the players learned the game as boys – to practice sessions in Kabul and on to the qualifying tournaments overseas.

With unrestricted behind-the-scenes access at international matches, the film follows the ups and downs of their epic journey. Witty, touching and nail-biting to the end, Out of the Ashes is a compelling story of triumph over adversity.

Directed by Tim Albone and Lucy Martens
Duration: 90′
Year: 2010