At this point I dont know if Setara Hussainzada was a good man or not. As a woman, she is taking a risk even entering the show. D: Do you keep in touch with any of the subjects, or have any recent news? The mother and daughter duo disappear into anonymity once the show recording is over. Silencing the Song: An Afghan Fallen Star, a documentary by Havana Marking released in January 2011 revisiting Setara as she deals with continuous death threats. D: While the film is observational and maintains its distance, there is an obvious empathy that comes through in the portrayal of Setara. (One interviewee simply states that she should be killed.). Anything left unsaid-- or something that you just didn't have room for? Afghan Star, a 2009 documentary film followed the lives of four contestants on the show - Hameed Sakhizada, Setara Hussainzada, Rafi Naabzada, and Lema Sahar who appeared on the third season of the show. "I believe there is no difference between a woman and a man," she declares. Setara was eventually evicted from her home. "We were incredibly lucky," says director Havana Marking, whose vivid documentary focuses on four contestants. Maybe theyll come away with a knowledge of how much can really ride on a song. [CDATA[ Afghan Star. Reviewed by Ken . Sorry, we . Starring: Rafi Naabzada, Lema Sehar, Hameed Sakhizada, Setara Hussainzada, Habib Amiri. As the nation attempts to find peace after decades of conflict, 'Afghan Star' follows the screening of a 'Pop Idol' style television program, apparently gripping the nation. Afghan Star soundtrack from 2009, composed by Various Artists. Death threats, bomb scares, battling extremists in a conservative society like Afghanistan is a daily affair. He was a good friend of the president of the company that had the lawsuit with the government. I went to Afghanistan in January 2002, just a few months after the Taliban fled Kabul, to make a documentary for the BBC about the return of music to the capital. In English, Dari, and Pashtun, with . The final was watched by 11 million people, a third of the Afghan population, all voting for their favourite singer by mobile phone; for many, it was their first taste of democracy. Setaras parents' house in Herat was daubed with words like whore on the door. For the final telecast, 11 million viewers - a third of the country - tuned in, and the film understands that while voting for a singer by cellphone may be one of the sillier forms of democracy, its still an immensely powerful one for people whove long lacked a voice. When Silencing the Song picks up a year later, Hussainzada has married one of her fans and is eight months pregnant, but her life is in disarray. Sediqi travelled to Sundance to promote the documentary, and never came back. 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Ty Burr can be reached at tburr@globe.com. Afghan Star the show and the documentary moved on, but the director stuck around to witness the fallout on its most controversial performer. Your comment is D: Would you have done anything differently given another opportunity? "So we'd just follow the action, turn up, drink tea, wait for the moment to shoot and leave. Host Sediqi has been granted political asylum in America. This time we got our female singer; we even went one step further, with a man and woman duetting. That same year, the Soviets invaded to prop up the communist government. I can only hope to follow that path. Some of it? Now hopes are high that this hit show can unite Afghanistan's diverse ethnic groups and help bring an end to conflict. Thats simply a case of cultural difference and is beside the point of the film, which is to examine the possibility of a show like this cutting through the regional and tribal differences of the contestants and the people voting for them. A look at how contestants on the a musical contest program "Pop Idol" in Afghanistan risk their lives to appear on the show. They each wield massive followings who back their respective boys with the fervor of British football fans or our own Red Sox Nation. Taking the inflammatory convergence of democracy, modernity and pop culture in a fragile "post-war" Afghanistan as its point of departure, Afghan Star is a powerful and evocative documentary, grounded in astute observation and led by compelling human narratives. Director: Havana Marking. "They tried it," Marking says, "but the audience hated it.". Then she marries one of her fans and has a baby, hoping for a measure of safety and forgiveness. Although Afghan Star is about pop, the music is very Afghan in character. Afghan Star, An Unlikely Platform For Liberation in Afghanistan, Is A Beacon Of Hope For Women. . The film will be screened on More4 on 7 April. What sets Afghan Star apart from other singing reality shows is the mammoth participation by women, hailing from such an orthodox state. What kind of effect do you think the emotion of that whole narrative had on you and on the film? Production: Zeitgeist Films. Because of this, it became a crime in the late 1990s todance or listen to music or to watch TV. Episode 02 - Mazar Auditions. He was a great music fan, and my guide to Afghan music," she says. STARmeter. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. It was the first big concert for more than a decade and was broadcast live around the world. Afghan Star is a 2008 documentary with a runtime of 1 hour and 27 minutes. Start the wiki, Javascript is required to view shouts on this page. How much freedom is too much? "AFGHAN STAR." Unrated. All Rights Reserved. The documentary follows these two women and two men. Day-to-day, it affected us because we couldn't really plan anything in advance due to kidnap threat. Contestants risk their lives to appear on the television show that is a raging success with the public and also monitored closely by the government. The show is popular among ordinary Afghan people and fans vote for their favorite contestants even across ethnic lines.Contestant Setara Hussainzada is the first of the four to be eliminated. Sediqi - who rebelled against Taliban rule by secretly repairing people's video recorders - wasn't exaggerating Afghan Star's huge influence. The best I can say is that he was a very talented and ambitious journalist who was a good friend of the president of his former company during the lawsuit. Available copies. Setara hussainzada ended up being a bad man. She was frowned upon for the scarf moment which caught everyones attention. Learn more about Setara Hussainzada - movies and shows, full bio, photos, videos, and more at TV Guide. The first is that as humans we all have a great deal of power. His family thought he was dead because they didnt see him for two days, but his evil plan backfired when he woke up to see his wife, son, and daughter lying dead on the floor. For more information, click here. If we didn't care about Setara--and of course, if I hadn't cared about her in the first place--the film would not be so intense or important. Here, the film's tone completely changes, and as she realizes the implications of her actions the reality of modern-day Afghanistan is revealed to the film's audience. [CDATA[> We Say, Yes! Zulala, is one of the three remaining contestants on the show which has always seen male winners. What's remarkable about Marking's film is not just the stories of these four contestants but the way it captures everyday life in Afghanistan - its street kids, the show's fans, people talking at street stalls. Habib Amiri, Setara Hussainzada, Rafi Naabzada, Lima Sahar, Hameed Sakhizada, Massoud Sanjer. There was a warlord in the northwest who suddenly freaked out, so we had to cancel a shoot as his local militia was on the rampage there. Boston.com article page player in wide format. Afghan Star is a reality television show competition that searches for the most talented singers across Afghanistan. Electric Sunroof, Head Up Display & Other Features That Make The All New Hot & Techy Brezza A Hit. D: Were there overt threats to your safety? As it turns out, the set alarm clock has helped setara hussainzada kill himself in his sleep without waking the whole house. Setara Hussainzada, a former Afghan Star participant, was devastated when her fellow countrymen called her a woman of loose character for dancing and singing showing her hair. Following more than three decades of war and five devastating years of Taliban rule, pop culture is beginning to return to Afghanistan. But what we see in this film is how strikingly, and tragically, Afghanistan has moved backwards in the intervening years; and how a latent national enthusiasm for having fun is pitched against a deep set religiosity, sometimes within the same individuals. Edit this wiki. Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company. She said she had feelings on the stage, as she had already been evicted (votes decide who stays). subject to the rules of our, THIS STORY HAS BEEN FORMATTED FOR EASY PRINTING, Find showtimes and theaters for 'Afghan Star', Report: Warrant Issued for Roggies Bar Owner, Boston Pops Concert Move Keeps the Beach Boys, Ditches Joey McIntyre, Lawmakers pass compounding pharmacy oversight bill, Follow this list on Twitter: @BostonPopular. Women contestants, in particular, have been the object of much anger among religious conservatives. Throughout this time, Afghans' love of music has never wavered. Instead, its just sort of there. The contestants become national celebrities with people campaigning for votes which are cast via SMS. "If the people want pop, I have to give them pop." Women like Setara Hussainzada and Zulala Hashemi are paving the path for new beginnings in Afghanistan. Contestants Rafi Naabzada (lef) and Lima Sahar (center) performing on stage in Havana Marking's Afghan Star, a Zeitgeist Films release. The third episode of Afghan Star Season 15 featured the Ghazal auditions. The message in his songs is national inclusiveness and unity. Our aim is to take peoples minds from weapons to music, says the shows host, Daoud Sediqi, a Ryan Seacrest with actual gravitas. HM: There are a million different things we could have done, and a million different things that could have happened as and when we were there. I realized early on that this was a huge liberation; we went with the action as and when it happened. When I returned in 2004 for another concert, a Pashtun singer had just become the first woman, post-Taliban, to sing on Afghan TV. Setara Hussainzada. The reaction of the man in the street? Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. What is this country that youngsters cannot make their voices heard, she despairs. initFadeSlider(); HM: It has made me really want to tell more stories and make more films. Out in the streets, condemnation of Setara is not limited to the "old guard." The fallout from her performance is brutal, raging from shocked disavowals to overt death threats. Afghan Star premieres at . The film looks at where Setara is now and the impact that her controversial performance has had on her life and her country, including ever-present threats to her safety. Silencing the Song: An Afghan Fallen Star. It was her last performance on the show. film before: The Crippendales) and so I was the hurdle. . Mad visionaries that they are, they gave me 15k immediately. Head film critic for Mountain Xpress from December 2000 until his death in June 2016. Setara Hussainzada was one of the first people to lose his life while working for a company that was a competitor of his former employer. Yet when the popular enthusiasm for voting for a favourite star seems in part driven by the sense of futility in voting in elections, one fears that the dark days may not yet be over. (Setara Hussainzada) Get this album or track at: 0:26: 5. Afghan Star. Video Collection: Youtube Title: Episode 37 - Special Concert. On this audition, the Ghazal fans from all over the country participated to show their talents in order to satisfy the judges for getting a success card which advances them to the next steps of auditions and finally to the top 12. In Afghanistan, its business as usual. Afghan Star follows the story of Hameed Sakhizada, Setara Hussainzada, Rafi Naabzada, and Lema Sahar, four contestants appearing in the third season of the Afghan reality show Afghan Star. The second part, titled "Silencing the Fallen Afghan Star," follows the story of one of the two final female contestants, Setara, who becomes notorious for her "dance moves" and "liberal . Afghan Star inspires, entertains and gives hope to a thriving young nation healing . In America, this would be a dystopian nightmare. When the Taliban were taken out of power in 2001, it was no longer a punishable crime in Afghanistan to watch TV, dance, or listen to popular music. Easier said than done. Rafi (a 19-year-old idol-in-the-making from Mazar e Sharif), Hameed (a classically trained musician from the persecuted Hazara ethnic group), Lima (a 25-year-old woman from conservative Kandahar) and Setara (a 21-year-old woman from Herat): Each subject has a unique story that brings broader issues into focus. "She deserves to be killed." We just had to turn up and drink lots of tea and hope the person would agree to filming. I doubt she realizes what an impact she has had on the British documentary community. In this episode only, those with high music talent succeeded to the next auditions (Top 160). View version history. "Mumtaz, our driver, had been in prison for a week under the Taliban because he was found with a music cassette. However, I think the film falls down in its emotional impact mostly due to Markings heavy reliancewhich may have been inevitableon the technically crude footage of the actual show. It's also available to stream, download and buy on demand at Apple TV. Menu. She was passionate and brave woman (though also a little naive) who lived for music. Suicide Bomb Hits Afghan Capital Days Before Security Talks. See here for our terms of service. I don't mean the film is perfect, but we do have a brilliant balance between heart-filled content and craft, considering the time and place that we were. When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 1996, among their many edicts was banning popular music, considering it a corrupting and sacrilegious influence. How did you get started and put it all together? Since 2005, millions have been tuning in to Tolo TV's wildly popular American Idol-style series "Afghan Star." This country was like a house that no one was living in, says Rafi, implying that the lights are coming on again, one by one. Finally, there is Setara Hussainzada, 22, from Herat, a conservative city in the west. I am confident now that I can and do have a way of directing that works. Any work that you looked to when you started this project? And since one of the two female contestantsSetara Hussainzadais a rule breaker who goes beyond the dictates of Islamic religion (she shows her hair and dances during a performance), were given a much more potentially dangerous drama, since this results in death threats. The specters of repression and fear are palpable, but so too, apparently, is a wave of hope and defiance. Mostly Islamist in outlook, the Mujahideen placed restrictions on music and outlawed women singers. Afghan Star. Entertainment is a risky business in Afghanistan. Id like to be more enthusiastic about Havana Markings Afghan Star than I am, but the fact is that its simply not as compelling as it ought to be. Setara Hussainzada was a journalist. Why People Love to Hate 11 Ways to Completely Sabotage Your garade. Afghan Star follows the story of Hameed Sakhizada, Setara Hussainzada, Rafi Naabzada, and Lema Sahar, four | Countries - Afghanistan, United Kingdom | MPAA Rating - NR "I want to be famous so I can sing for my people," says Rafi Nabzaada, a 19-year-old Tajik. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. It is one of the most disturbing scenes in the film: we see her headscarf slip as she moves - modestly - to the music. While one contestant emerges as the indisputable heroine, music is the first subject of the film, and protagonists and filmmakers alike want us to see it as they do: powerful, transformative, essential. Setara Hussainzada is an Afghan singer who appeared on the third season of "Afghan Star," a popular TV talent show in Afghanistan. As the filmmakers point out, for many Afghanis--about 68 percent of whom are under age 25, according to the United National Development Programme--this is a first flirtation with democracy. NATO routinely cites the incident as proof that Afghans can protect their own. What was your vision? HM: Afghanistan is very volatile and problems can flare up in odd areas at any time. Sorry, we Her act of defiance changes the tone and direction of the film, as the controversy intensifies and new ones arise. Hameed Sakhizada, 20, is the most musical of the four. I have personal experience of such strong sentiment. Man in the street: [after Setara adds dance moves to her song] She should be killed. So his family were asleep for a few hours and when they woke up they saw him lying in the hallway. A study in contradictions, the Afghan Star phenomenon is both an expression and a catalyst of the dramatic conflicts that are shaping modern Afghanistan. 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