Basir Mujahid, an Afghan film actor and director who lives in Iran, says that he will continue working in cinema.

Basir Mujahid, an Afghan film actor and director who lives in Iran, says that he will continue working in cinema.

Mujahid says that as a child, watching movies that were broadcast on national television in the late sixties made him interested in working in cinema.

When I was very young, I watched a movie by Amitabh Bachchan called Maqdar Ka Sekandar, which was my role model and after that I tried to enter cinema.

Basir Mujahid, an Afghan filmmaker and actor, was born in Kabul in 1356, graduated from Yake Tut High School and then studied in cinema art courses in India and learned practical training from film directors.

He says that he tried several times to enter the art of cinema in the 1960s, but he faced problems:

“Because my father was a construction worker, our financial strength was not enough for me to enter the cinema with money, but I was very interested and I approached the Afghan Film Directorate several times, but because I did not know anyone there.” They didn’t give me a deadline and I was kicked out.”

But Mujahid says that he was not disappointed and even though his family did not agree, he continued to study cinema in addition to school lessons:

All the family members told me that you fall behind in your education and have a different path, but I also studied, studied cinema and watched movies.

Basir Mujahid made his first film with the help of several other filmmakers during the first period of the Taliban regime:

“During the first period of the Taliban regime, at that time, the camera was considered more serious than a weapon, and it was not allowed to produce and watch films at all. We secretly started working on a film called “Drops of Blood”. The first time at Ansari Crossroads I stood in front of the camera, at the same time the voice of Amr and Marouf was heard from the speaker, everyone ran away and I stayed in the field with the equipment. But my love for cinema, I completed and made the film under these conditions.

Mujahid says that his first film was not released because it was recorded with a non-digital camera and of low quality, because according to him cinema became digital later, but after that Mr. Mujahid appeared in many Afghani films and some foreign films. . Shamal has played a role in the Indian movie “Cable Express” and has been in some movies as a director or assistant director.

According to Mr. Mujahid, “Anjam”, “Enemy” and “O Mother” are among the most prominent films in which he has acted.

Mujahid also served in the ranks of the police in the previous government and was the spokesman of the Kabul Police Headquarters for a while, but he went to Iran after the Taliban regained power.

Mr. Mujahid says that although it was hard for him to be away from his homeland at first, he is now trying to continue his film activities abroad.

He continued: Although I am somewhat disappointed in the country of emigration due to the lack of cinema in our country, I still do not stop trying. Every time I get discouraged, I have not lost hope and have moved. And every Afghan youth is busy in every corner of the world and in every work, if he fails, he should not be disappointed.”

Basir Mujahid says that after going to Iran, he presented the movie “Vagabond” in Iranian cinemas, which according to him was well received.

He said that in the next few months, he will participate in a film being made in Iran about the life of an Afghan poet.

Mr. Mujahid says that although there is no cinema in the shadow of the Taliban government, he believes that if work is done in this field and Afghanistan has its active cinema, this country will be saved from cultural attacks.