Afghan Film

Afghan Film, also known as the Afghan Film Organization (AFO), is Afghanistan's state-run film company and national film archive, headquartered in Kabul. Established in 1968, it has served as the central institution for Afghan cinema production and preservation for over half a century. The organization occupies a singular position in the cultural history of Afghanistan, functioning simultaneously as a film studio and as the guardian of the nation's cinematic heritage. Its significance extends beyond filmmaking to encompass the rescue and survival of Afghan film history through periods of intense political upheaval, most notably during Taliban rule. The institution has also achieved international recognition through documentaries that chronicle its turbulent history, and it became the subject of global attention again when the de facto Taliban administration dissolved it on 13 May 2025.

Afghan Film was founded in 1968 as the state agency responsible for Afghan cinema. Its operations were forcibly interrupted from 1996 to 2001, when the Taliban assumed control of the country and targeted film as an art form. During this first Taliban period, many of the archive's contents were destroyed, though some staff members risked their lives to conceal valuable films. The 2015 documentary A Flickering Truth chronicled these rescue and archival efforts, bringing international attention to the bravery of archivists who preserved what they could. In August 2019, Afghan Film launched an eight-day festival showcasing 100 films in cinemas across the country to mark the centenary of Afghan independence. Sahraa Karimi, who held a PhD in Cinema from the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, became the organization's first female president in May 2019. She fled Afghanistan in August 2021 as the Taliban regained power, having issued public appeals for international support for Afghan artists. Following the takeover, Mawlawi Shafiullah Javid 'Afghan' assumed stewardship of the organization, and in October 2021 the Islamic Emirate appointed Mawlavi Jawed Afghan as director. Under this administration, the AFO produced documentary films including Salang and Company Bridge, presented in March 2022, which depicted infrastructure reconstruction in Kabul. The de facto Taliban administration ultimately dissolved Afghan Film on 13 May 2025.

Afghan Film functioned as both a film production company and a national film archive. Its holdings comprised Afghan cinematic works spanning decades of the country's film history, though the exact extent of surviving materials was diminished by destruction during the 1996-2001 Taliban period. The archive's contents have served as primary source material for documentary projects examining Afghan cinema. The 2019 documentary The Forbidden Reel, directed by Afghan-Canadian filmmaker Ariel Nasr, utilized interviews and archival materials from Afghan Film to trace the history of Afghan cinema. This film premiered at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in 2019 and won the Rogers Audience Award at Hot Docs 2020. The scope of the collection thus extended beyond physical preservation to active use in scholarly and documentary filmmaking about Afghan cultural history.

Specific individual film titles preserved at Afghan Film are not extensively catalogued in available sources, though the archive's holdings informed several significant documentary projects. The Forbidden Reel (2019) drew upon Afghan Film archives for its historical narrative. The 2015 documentary A Flickering Truth documented rescue operations rather than constituting an archive holding itself. Among prominent Afghan films referenced in relation to the country's cinema are Ferie dancer by Jawed Wassell, Osama by Siddiq Barmak, Kandahar by Mohsen Malkmalbaf, Buda explotó por vergüenza by Hana Malkmalbaf, and A las cinco de la tarde by Samira Malkmalbaf, though these are noted as works of Afghan cinema generally rather than as specific Afghan Film archive possessions.

Afghan Film was headquartered in Kabul, Afghanistan, operating as a state-owned institution. The organization was dissolved by the de facto Taliban administration on 13 May 2025, terminating its role as an active cultural institution. No information is available regarding public access protocols, visiting hours, or current ownership status of its physical premises and remaining collections following dissolution.