My Childhood, My Country – 20 Years in Afghanistan
Phil Grabsky, Shoaib Sharifi, UK, Afghanistan, 2021o
From 2002 to 2021, this epoch-making documentary film follows an Afghan farm boy who initially lives with his family as refugees in caves, returns to his war-torn village, sees the Taliban withdraw and return, grows up to be a truant and coal shoveller out of sheer necessity, and finally moves to Kabul as a young family man, where he can turn his fate around – yet remains a pawn in the tragic history of his country.
In 2014, American director Richard Linklater delighted cinema audiences worldwide with his Ocasr-wininng fictional coming-of-age saga Boyhood, which he shot in Texas over a period of twelve years with the same cast. My Childhood, My Country is the documentary counterpart to this legendary long-term study – and all the more real because the film shows what it means in real life to be born and grow up in a far less privileged place:
For 20 years, British filmmaker Phil Grabsky and his Afghan co-director Shoaib Sharifi accompanied the Afghan farm boy Mir through this land of domestic and foreign occupiers, war and the resulting poverty. At the beginning, in 2002, Mir is 7 years old and lives with his family as a war refugee in the caves of Bamiyan, where the Taliban had blown up the Buddha statues before being defeated by Afghan, US and NATO troops. By the end of the film in 2021, Mir himself, now a news cameraman in Kabul, films how terror engulfs the city and the Taliban march in again. In between, in ninety stirring minutes, we see how the mischievous smile and zest for life is severely tested, because hardship, danger and fear are constantly breathing down Mir's neck – but also how hope always springs anew and Mir and his family continue to fight for a better life, while the bigwigs on the global screens incessantly talk about rebuilding Afghanistan and yet billions of dollars into a military campaign doomed to fail.
After the film was completed, the gifted filmmaker Mir and his articulate and hard-working wife had enough money for a house and a taxi. The film My Childhood, My Country won the Bafta in 2022 and indeed 12 other awards and was shown throughout the world – except the USA! Sadly, Phil Grabsky recently received the news that Mir had lost his taxi and hosue and was back to shoveling coal in the rural mountains, risking his life as he did in his childhood days.
Cinefile and the British production company Seventh Art Productions are showing My Childhood, My Country exclusively in Switzerland until the end of January 2026 as a charity streaming service for CHF 12.00 per rental: all proceeds will go to Mir and his family. We can't say whether it will be enough for a new taxi. But one thing is certain: Mir needs and deserves our solidarity, representing countless others with similar fates whose names we don't know.
Andreas Furler