Kabul, City in the Wind

The sound of rushing wind is an almost constant presence in Aboozar Amini’s portrait of Kabul. Images are colored by a permanent haze of dust. Residents of the Afghan capital live with it, just as they live with the violence that has formed the backdrop to their daily lives for decades.

Despite the constant threat of attacks by the Taliban, IS and smaller terrorist groups, bus driver Abas keeps on following his route through the crowded streets. His meagre earnings are never enough to pay off his dilapidated bus. Elsewhere, on a hill on the outskirts of the city, Afshin—still a child—is assigned the role of head of the household when his father is forced to flee the country. It is a heavy responsibility, one he can briefly forget when he plays with his friends in an old Soviet tank. Abas has his own remedies for the pressure of a hard existence: singing and smoking hashish.

Amini interweaves these impressions with hypnotic images in which the protagonists share their worries and dreams directly with the camera, immersing the viewer in life in Kabul a few years before the Taliban takeover.