A review of What we left unfinished - Peiran Chen

As the event suggested, “what we left unfinished” is a work-in-progress documentary film directed and featured by Mariam Ghani, who is well known as the artist, writer, and filmmaker. She discovers and reconstructs hidden and parallel narratives of the experience of the Afghan film industry during the period of Afghan Communism (1978-1991) in this documentary film.

Mariam Ghani herself is quite fascinating. As the Afghanistan president’s daughter, she was unable to travel back to Afghanistan until 2002, when she was 24. Maybe it is one of the reasons she chose to work on this film. In this documentary, what we left unfinished, there are five films shot during that Afghan Communism that were never revealed onto the real screen. In the unfinished clips of the documentary, those actors and directors talked a lot about the Afghan Communism back in time.

Juwansher Haidary, one of those actors, said that he often thought he did not fit well in those hero roles he played in the film but directors said he did a great job. “If you said some very bad things towards the government, they will come for you”, Juwansher mentioned in the interview. As a matter of fact, at that time, the government gave a bunch of money and any other kind of support towards film industry, but what they really want was only the praise about the Afghan Communism. People did not have much freedom compared to nowadays, even the films did not have freedom back to that time. Those five films covered in the documentary all talked the truth of the government, not so glamorous of the Communism. Unfortunately for them, the excessive strict censorship of the Communists, those films cannot go to the screen and they were dead in the water.

If you worry about that this documentary would just the interview with remnants of these films, you will be wrong. For me, the most exciting part of this documentary is the background music which designed and composed by Qasim Naqvi. He is a drummer, a composer, and member of the group Dawn of Midi. Since the documentary is unfinished, so the whole process includes talking and watching. During the whole event, we watched one clip of the film and then the artists will discuss some relation between the stories and the music. I personally love the music in this film. It does not sound intensely depressed or extremely irritated during the interview and during those aborted films. It just like ordinary life being or just like the water, in such a way like those actors and directors. They knew everything about the government at that time; they chose to shoot anarchy films to against the Communism, although their work did not survive from the Communists, they still used a plain, a genuine way to talk their past. The music plays a great role in the documentary; it shows the anger and the sadness but it is just right there. Music helped viewers feel the history, get connected with those storytellers, and also put us in a position to think about the history.

As a work-in-progress documentary film, I think it is quite great. With no doubts that I would watch the whole version as it comes out. But at the very beginning of the film, the light effect makes me feel dizzy and the flashing light in the transition process also makes my eye discomfort as well. Mariam Ghani and Qasim Naqvi brought us a great journey with the old Afghanistan film industry. Perhaps Mariam just wants to reconstruct the hidden truth and the experience, or maybe she wants to show the Afghan Communism’s unfairness. But most of all, it was a great experience with excellent paired music and have a chance back to that time to see what people have been through.