Unpacking the ArteArchive

THE FUTURE THAT AWAITS

Expired February 27, 2023 4:59 AM
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6 films in package
Brick Sellers of Kabul
A row of kids queues to sell bricks that they collected from a collapsed structure to a man who stacks the bricks up into a cubic sculpture, perhaps in an effort to erect the very same structure the bricks originally came from.
White House
White House represents a government building that was knocked down by a US air strike. Only a few columns (it was a neoclassical style construction) and a few walls of the building stand in their original vertical condition, all the rest has been reduced to rubble. Lida Abdul started painting everything in white, from the small stones to the entire column
Vice Versa One
Somewhere in Afghanistan, a little girl goes place to place to collect people's votes.
Kaloo School
In between the famous Baba Mountain in rural Center of Afghanistan there is a village with 2500 families with just two schools for children. Nine-year-old Fakhereh from Afghanistan isn’t content to be a goatherd. She goes to school and enjoys learning. However, she has to walk there on foot and the journey takes two-and-a-half hours.
Bacha Posh
Bacha Posh is a multifaceted documentary focusing on the Afghan tradition of dressing girls as boys in order for them to be able to fulfill the function of a male family member.
The Lowland
Lowland is an intimate portrait of a community of undocumented migrant Afghan children, living and working as garbage collectors in the margins of Tehran

THE FUTURE THAT AWAITS presents films about Afghan children and youth made in the years following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan and until the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in Summer 2021. Sharing experiences throughout Afghanistan as well as in Iran, the films explore how characters navigate inherited political realities, legacies of social traditions, access to education, isolated communities, and child labor. The in-person screening features five short films that reflect the main themes of the program.


Featuring works by Lida Abdul, Yalda Afsah, Aidin Halalzadeh, Sahra Mani, Shahrbanoo Sadat, Sepideh Salarvand, and Ginan Seidl.


This program is co-presented by ArteEast and The Clemente and is curated by Lila Nazemian (ArteEast Special Projects Curator)

The Lowland, Aidin Halalzadeh and Sepideh Salarvand, Iran, 2021

Persian with English subtitles


Lowland is an intimate portrait of a community of undocumented migrant Afghan children, living and working as garbage collectors in the margins of Tehran. Over the course of five years, the two filmmakers, Sepideh and Aidin, documented their encounters with the children first as ethnographers and volunteer teachers, and later as filmmakers. The film is an assemblage of personal everyday stories and gestures shared by the children of the Lowland as powerful individuals rather than mere child workers.


About the filmmakers


Aidin Halalzadeh (b. 1989) lives and works as an editor and color correction assistant in a film studio in Tehran.








Sepideh Salarvand (b. 1991) lives and works in Tehran, Iran. She received her BA in Social Sciences from Tehran University. Her book, "I Could Not Speak," published in 2022, is a collection of essays based on her Master’s Thesis “An ethnography of Afghan child laborers in Tehran."

  • Year
    2021
  • Runtime
    52 minutes
  • Language
    Persian
  • Country
    Iran
  • Director
    Aidin Halalzadeh, Sepideh Salarvand
  • Screenwriter
    Sepideh Salarvand
  • Producer
    Bahman Kiarostami and Aidin Halalzadeh
  • Cinematographer
    Aidin Halalzadeh, Sepideh Salarvand
  • Editor
    Bahman Kiarostami
  • Sound Design
    Mahoor Mirshakkak
  • Music
    Mahshid Afzali
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