Our In Conversation with Ibrahim Nash’at, director of Hollywoodgate (2023) is now available to watch.
SYNOPSIS
When the U.S. withdrew from its twenty-year “forever war” in Afghanistan, the Taliban retook control of the ravaged country and immediately found an American base loaded with weapons. Hollywoodgate spends a year inside Afghanistan following the Taliban as they take possession of the cache America left behind, and transform from a fundamentalist militia into a heavily armed military regime.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
As a child, I was exposed to many who saw the Taliban as heroes. In my adolescence I questioned this belief, and it led me to journalism. Since then, I have worked across the Middle East and Europe filming world leaders. Most of these people were men who merely wanted me to be a spokesperson for their perspective and an amplifier of their message.
When the Taliban came to power (again), I was stunned. What would happen to the people of Afghanistan? It haunted me. Because of my background and professional experiences, I wondered if I could gain access to the Taliban. If so, this time I would show the world what they wanted me to see and, more importantly, what I saw.