27/11/2024 - The director and co-director, also siblings, describe the shared intentions behind their film, a personal look at their mother’s life and three generations of women in Afghanistan

Najiba Noori (left) and Rasul Noori

Afghan journalist and documentarian Najiba Noori makes her feature debut, Writing Hawa [+see also:
film review
interview: Najiba Noori, Rasul Noori
film profile], with a solemnly powerful portrait of her mother and family, whose stories also serve as a synecdoche for the plight of women in Afghanistan today. Speaking with Cineuropa on the occasion of the film’s world premiere at IDFA, Najiba shared how the camera actually brought her and her mother closer together as documentarian and subject. Sharing more about his role as a collaborator was her brother and co-director, Rasul Noori, who continued this brave cinematographic effort in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover in 2021, which triggered Najiba’s departure from Afghanistan to Paris.

Cineuropa: How did your film begin? What was the genesis for this story, which spans many different storylines?
Najiba Noori: When I was visiting my mum, Hawa, she would always tell me, “This is amazing that you're educated, you're working, and today, you're an independent woman. I wish I was allowed to go to school, to get an education – I would be an independent woman like you.” My father, Musa, is 30 years older than my mother. He suffers from Alzheimer’s, and then it became more difficult for my mum. […] For years, she just raised us six children. As for my dad, who is now old, he became like a child. It was like my mum was taking caring of a seventh child. She was very determined and eager to start again, [saying things like,] “It’s not too late. I want to learn how to write, how to read.” […] There were also other reasons why I started this project because it’s not just my mum’s story; it’s also the story of so many other women who have been through the same experiences.

What did the filming process look like, given that much of it was within your own household and family?
NN: I started working as a video journalist for Agence France-Presse. […] And I was slowly taking my camera to the house and filming. [Hawa] was not, I would say, uncomfortable with the camera, because I was behind it, and I am the daughter. Instead, the camera brought us so close to each other. Day by day, I was listening to her stories: we became like close friends. She would share so many personal emotions and personal experiences that I had never heard about before. There is one scene where she's talking about love. I didn't know that my mum, when she had two of my brothers, Hussain and Zaher, was in love with someone. After 40 years, she is crying over that love that she couldn't have because of kids, because of her husband. Then, slowly, I think the camera became part of the family.

What did the collaboration between the two of you look like?
NN: In 2019, I started [filming] by myself. When I left the country after the arrival of the Taliban in Kabul, it was Rasul who took the camera [as cinematographer], as you see in the film. […] But it was not easy. We were saying, “Okay, now the power of our tool, which is the camera, becomes more important, and we need to be strong. We need to continue as a form of resistance; we need to continue telling this story.” In the beginning, the story was about my mother. Then, slowly, it becomes the story of three generations of women in the same family.

Rasul, what went through your mind when you took over the camera from Najiba?
Rasul Noori: The arrival of the Taliban was a big shock for everybody. We could never have imagined that they would actually come to power or would arrive in Kabul for the second time in Afghanistan. […] Taking the camera [from Najiba] was a very important way to actually be stronger. It entailed a responsibility for me in that it is very important to document this part of our history of what’s happening to our mother, and, more than that, to the women.

After the Taliban took over, how did the dynamic change in terms of the filmmaking?
RN: As you can see in the film, before the Taliban, Hawa was going outside more freely. But after they arrived, the family became more isolated. It was very stressful to continue filming outside. It was almost impossible.

NN: Two times that he was filming, the Taliban took him and beat him. In the end, my mum and my other brother went to the Taliban and begged them to free Rasul and bring him back home.

RN: Even inside the house, filming was stressful because the Taliban were searching house by house to check who was there. […] They just opened the door, entered the building, and took me and my camera.

Has your family seen the film? What are their thoughts?
NN: Yes, I showed the film to my family. It was very special to watch it with [them]. […] There were moments when we were laughing and smiling. There were moments when Hawa was very emotional and was crying: “Look where we were and where we have arrived today,” she said. Whatever we had built in our own country, you know, we lost it. But I always had my brothers’ support. Each of them, in their way, supported me – not only me as the daughter of this family, but also my mum. From the beginning, they were really supportive of my mother, and she is the boss of the family. That day, I could feel that they were proud. They are proud of us, what we have achieved, what we have made and what we want to say to the world through this film.