Afghan Star

In Afghanistan you risk your life to sing. After 30 years of war and Taliban rule, pop culture has returned to the country—and since 2005, millions are tuning in to Tolo TV’s wildly popular American Idol-style series Afghan Star. Like its Western predecessors, the show features ordinary people competing for a cash prize and record deal. More surprisingly, the contest is open to everyone across the country despite gender, ethnicity or age. Two thousand people audition, including three extremely brave women. And when viewers vote for their favorites via cell phone, it is, for many, their first encounter with the democratic process.

Winner of the Directing and Audience Awards in Sundance’s 2009 World Documentary competition, Havana Marking’s timely and moving film follows the dramatic stories of four young finalists—two men and two women—as they hazard everything to become the nation’s favorite performer. By observing the Afghani people's relationship to its pop culture, Afghan Star is the perfect window into a country’s tenuous,ongoing struggle for modernity. What Americans consider frivolous entertainment is downright revolutionary—and more human—in this troubled part of the world.

“This eye-opening film reveals that even systems as dubious as the Idol format mean dramatically different things when transferred to radically dissimilar cultures.” (Kenneth Turan, L.A. Times)

“Afghan Star is most thrilling when depicting the show's delicately balanced effort to bring Afghans together despite their fractious ethnic and clan boundaries.” (Chris Barsanti, Hollywood Reporter)