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“Afghan Children” is the touching documentary story of a small group of Afghan refugee children who illegally attend school in a clandestine classroom at a Tehran mosque. Their eager young schoolteacher is a college student named Azam. Like all children of Iran’s illegal Afghan refugees, these children can’t attend Iranian schools because their families have no formal refugee status in Iran. But the modest classroom inside the local mosque is initially a place of hope for Azam’s small group of young pupils. Early in the film Azam reveals that many of the children have mysteriously stopped coming to her class. We soon follow Azam in her tireless search to the children’s homes to discover the reason for their disappearance. As Azam’s search gathers momentum, we discover the day-to-day barriers that prevented the children from attending her school. Some children were sent to work to earn wages for their families, while some families simply couldn’t afford books and school supplies. Ironically, Azam’s monthly school fee was too high for each child in the family to attend school. Azam is finally able to pursue each child to return to her classroom, only to see the school suddenly shut down by a mosque employee. “Afghan Children” pursues the cultural and bureaucratic challenges facing Iran’s illegal Afghan community with poignancy and, ultimately, with hope.
Director: Mehrdad Farid
Documentary
29 min
DVCam
Color
2002
selected in the 59th Venice International Film Festival – Italy; winner of the Golden Olive Prize in Kalamata International Film Festival – Greece, 2002; winner of the Audience’s Prize for Best Film in Hull International Film Festival – England, 2002; winner of the Jury Prize in Kish Film Festiva l– Iran,2004
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