Miles Amoore

“This is going to be awesome,” boomed the American director through his megaphone.

The Afghan horsemen, who were lined up in front of him on a muddy plain close to the outskirts of Kabul, boomed back: “Allah Akbar – God is Great”, as they punched the air with their fists.

So began Buzkashi Boys – an American-funded film whose crew includes the cameraman from the Oscar-winning film The Hurt Locker.

The film, which finished shooting on Friday, is based around Afghanistan’s national sport – Buzkashi.

The game is a largely lawless and violent mix of rugby and polo played with a beheaded calf for a ball. Up to fifty riders compete for money as they try to rip the headless carcass from each another before dumping it in a chalk circle in the middle of a large pitch. The best players, whose horses are worth up to $10,000, are revered as national heroes in a country that lacks sports idols.

The men behind Buzkashi Boys – Hollywood-trained American director Sam French and Afghan-Canadian producer Ariel Nasr – hope their film will kick start the regeneration of an Afghan film industry that decades of war and Taliban repression has left in tatters. Read the rest of this entry »