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PRODUCTION Denmark

From Denmark to Afghanistan: Sadat’s Wolf and Sheep

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- Afghan writer-director Shahrbanoo Sadat is raising money for a portrait of the village where she grew up – “where children must work all day, but still have a childhood”

From Denmark to Afghanistan: Sadat’s Wolf and Sheep
Shahrbanoo Sadat (© Adomeit Film)

In Denmark, Afghan writer-director Shahrbanoo Sadat and her German producer, Katja Adomeit (of Adomeit Film), have launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise $100,000 for Wolf and Sheep [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Shahrbanoo Sadat
film profile
]
, described as “the first arthouse film by a woman director to screen in an Afghan cinema – ever”.

“Developing the arts and the film industry, which currently have almost no infrastructure, can help to change Afghanistan from a country of war into a country of culture and good stories,” says Sadat. “Today, Danish director Lars von Trier’s company, Zentropa Entertainments, has contributed $40,000, and we are very excited about this.” 

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Earlier this year, Sadat and Adomeit spent two weeks in Bamyan, central Afghanistan, casting 800 children for the film, which will portray the village where Sadat grew up – “a place where children must work all day, but still have a childhood”.

After 28 days, they have received pledges of $90,036 for the production, which they will stage in central Afghanistan, mixing a local crew with international professionals – “most film workers have left the country and live in refugee camps around the world”.

The foreign team includes New Zealand-born, Danish-educated director Daniel Joseph Borgman, Danish cinematographer Nadim Carlsen, Icelandic co-producer Anton Máni Svansson, Danish sound designer Thomas Jæger, producer’s assistant Cæcilie Østerby Sørensen and graphic designer Åsmund Sollihøgda.

Having studied documentaries at the French Ateliers Varan Kabul workshop in 2009, Sadat’s first short, Vice Versa One, was selected for the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes in 2011 and screened at New York’s MoMA. Her 2013 documentary Not at Home, which was co-directed by Adomeit, was developed and produced at Copenhagen’s DOX:LAB, and was selected for Rotterdam 2014. Wolf and Sheep, which will shoot from May 2015, was initiated during Sadat’s Cinéfondation Residency at Cannes 2010.

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