Director FAZILA AMIRI (Canada 2022) 90 min
Here’s what happens when Afghanistan’s pop icon and activist Aryana Sayeed decides it’s time to advance the fight for equal rights by using music as a weapon. Noting that for 13 straight seasons Afghanistan’s answer to American Idol has never had a female winner, Sayeed commits to mentoring two young female frontrunners. Up-and-comers Zahra Elham and Sadiqa Madadgar vie for the top spot on the hit television talent show Afghan Star but see their dreams deferred and their world deeply shaken when the Taliban returns to power, reversing twenty years of progress for women’s rights. Afghan-Canadian filmmaker Fazila Amiri navigates suspense with sensitivity as the singers encounter death threats and try to escape Kabul during the American evacuation, exchanging their hope of stardom for a bitter exile.
In Dari/Farsi with English subtitles