Country: Germany, Belgium, France
Year: 2026
Duration: 83'
Afghanistan, summer 2021. As the Taliban gradually take over the country, Leila, a young widow, arrives in Kabul. She begins working in a kitchen, only to discover it is a Bacha Bazi house. There, teenagers and young boys, dressed as women, are forced to dance in front of groups of men. Leila meets Tamim, one of the older Bachas, and decides to help him - and some of the other boys - escape. As the city edges closer to collapse, she must find a way to get them out of there, and out of the country, before it’s too late.
Biography
film director
Chabname Zariab
(Afghanistan), born in Afghanistan and raised in France, is a writer and director. She published her first novel, The Afghan Pianist, in 2012. Following that, she wrote and directed four short films: the documentary Je passe (2009), the fictional stories Au bruit des clochettes (2015), L’enfant chameau (2018) and Hizia (2020), which received French César’s nomination, two Oscar qualifications, some sixty awards and were presented in more than 200 festivals. Among them BFI, Interfilm, Clermont-Ferrand FF, Aesthetica FF, Brooklyn FF etc. Her cinema deals with difficult childhoods in the Middle East. In 2019, she took part in the collective film French Touch: Between Men. Les Clochettes de Kaboul is her feature-length debut.
FILMOGRAFIA
Je passe (doc, 2009), Au bruit des clochettes (cm, 2015), L’Enfant chameau (cm, 2018), French Touch: Between Men (coregia Emma Benestan, Satya Dusaugey, Guillaume Foirest, 2019), Hizia (cm, 2020), Les Clochettes de Kaboul (2026).
Declaration
film director
“The story also highlights the reality for women both before the Taliban’s return and since August 2021, when millions saw their rights erased and the world largely looked away. For me, telling this story is both a personal responsibility and an act of quiet resistance.”
Cast
& Credits
DIRECTOR: Chabname Zariab. STORY, SCREENPLAY: Chabname Zariab, Parande Zariab. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Pierre Cottereau. EDITING: Xavier Sirven, Héloïse Pelloquet, Julie Duclaux. PRODUCTION DESIGN: Franck Muller. COSTUME DESIGN: Bérénice Lagrange, Bouchra El Ouali. MUSIC: Maxence Dussère. SOUND: Fabrice Osinski. CAST: Golshifteh Farahani, Mojtaba Ahmadi, Fatima Tawakkuli, Rohed Khan, Aziz Hamrah, Sayed Hashimi, Ramsha Shafa, Arsam Omidi, Arsin Omidi, Vénus Nazari, Rahima Noori, Khorshid Noor, Zobair Padash, Forouzan Jamshidnejad, Monirah Hashemi. PRODUCTION: Jean-Etienne Brat, Lou Chicoteau per Alta Rocca Films. COPRODUCTION: Wasiliki Blese, Nina Spilger per Starhaud Filmproduktion, Jacques-Henri Bronckart, Tatjana Kozar per Versus. CONTACT: Théophane Berenger, Le Pacte t.berenger@le-pacte.com
