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The Orphanage by Shahrbanoo Sadat
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The Orphanage
by Shahrbanoo Sadat
#cannesfilmfestival #shahrbanoosadat #theorphanage

In the late 1980s, 15-year-old Qodrat lives in the streets of Kabul and sells cinema tickets on the black market. He is a big Bollywood fan and he daydreams himself into some of his favorite movie scenes. One day the Police bring him to the Soviet orphanage. But in Kabul the political situation is changing. Qodrat and all the children want to defend their home.

Original Title: Parwareshgah
Countries: Denmark, Germany, France, Luxembourg, Afghanistan, Qatar
Year: 2019
Ratio: 1:1.85
Sound: 5.1
Length: 90 min
Language: Dari, Russian, Hindi-Urdu
Festivals & Awards
2019
  • Cannes Film Festival – Directors’ Fortnight
  • Munich International Film Festival – CineCopro Competition
  • Brussels International Film Festival – International Competition
  • Odessa International Film Festival – International Competition
  • Sarajevo International Film Festival – Kinoscope
  • Haugesund International Film Festival – New Nordic Films
  • Reykjavik Film Festival – Golden Puffin Award
  • IndieBo Film Festival
  • Melbourne International Film Festival
  • New-Zealand International Film Festival
  • Carbonia Film Festival
  • BFI London
  • Chicago International Film Festival
  • Hong Kong Asian Film Festival
  • Calgary International Film Festival
About Director
Shahrbanoo Sadat

Shahrbanoo Sadat is an Afghan, female writer and director, based in Kabul. She studied at Atelier Varan in Kabul. Her first feature film "Wolf and Sheep" was developed with the Cannes Cinéfondation Residence in 2010, Shahr - 20 years old at the time - the youngest ever selected. The film won the main award at Director’s Fortnight 2016. Her second feature film "The Orphanage" is also the second part of a pentalogy, five films based on an unpublished autobiography. It has also premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

FILMOGRAPHY
  • The Orphanage – 2019
  • Wolf and Sheep – 2016
  • Who Wants to be the Wolf – 2014 – Short film
  • Not At Home – 2013 – Short film
  • Vice Versa One – 2010 – Short film
  • A Smile For Life – 2009 – Short film
Cast & Crew
Cast

Qodratollah QADIRI
Sediqa RASULI
Masihullah FERAJI
Hasibullah RASOOLI
Ahmad Fayaz OMANI

Crew

Screenwriter: Shahrbanoo Sadat (inspired by Anwar Hashimi’s unpublished diary)
DOP: Virginie Surdej
Editor: Alexandra Strauss
Sound Design: Sigrid DPA Jensen, Anne Gry Friis Kristensen
Producer: Katja Adomeit
Production: Adomeit Film ApS
Coproduction: Adomeit Film UG, La Fabrica Nocturna, Samsa Film, Wolf Pictures
Coproducers: Marine Perales Marhuenda, Xavier Rocher, Jani Thiltges, Shahrbanoo Sadat
Associate Producers: Tine Mikkelsen, Jon Hammer
World Sales: Luxbox

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“The Orphanage is a touching chronicle where innocent teenage boys fall prey to socio-political forces way beyond their control.”
The Hollywood Reporter
“In her sophomore feature, Afghan writer/director Shahrbanoo Sadat combines the bleak reality of life during the civil war of 1989–1992, the daily routines weathered by anxious boys, and flights into Bollywood fantasy, crafting an empathetic and assured follow-up to 2016 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight Art Cinema Award-winner Wolf and Sheep which also continues to interrogate the feeling of being swept away by someone else’s struggle.”
Screen
“Sadat’s “Orphanage” will find a warm welcome at festivals worldwide.”
Variety
“Sadat nails themes of transitional, self-involved adolescence even as the world around them is going to hell in a hand basket. Free-wheeling and easygoing, her narrative focuses on a happy-go-lucky protagonist and his interests, melding his light escapist fantasies influenced by the Bollywood cinema he consumes with the eventual violence which crashes down around their heads.”
IonCinema