Fazila Amiri | CANADA
90 min | Partial Subtitles
Co-presented by CFRU 93.3FM
Amidst the United States and Taliban peace negotiations, Afghanistan’s controversial pop star and activist Aryana Sayeed mentors hopeful contestants on the hit singing TV series Afghan Star, including the only two female singers, Zahra Elham and Sadiqa Madadgar. As their hopes and dreams of becoming national singers begin to manifest into reality, the Taliban returns to power, reversing twenty years of progress for women’s rights. Amidst the fear and panic caused by the fall of the Afghan government, each woman must make a harrowing escape from Kabul into exile while the US fully abandons Afghanistan.
DIRECTOR BIO
Fazila Amiri
Fazila Amiri is an Afghan-Canadian film director, writer, and producer based in Toronto. She holds an MFA degree in Film Production from York University and a BFA in Film Studies from NSCAD University. Her work includes both fiction and documentary, exploring social issues, personal histories, women’s rights, and presenting a nuanced and contemporary view of Afghanistan to international audiences. Her short films The Red Bicycle (2019), Unknown Artist (2018) have been shown at the Canadian Film Fest, Hot Docs International Canadian Documentary Festival, and Atlantic Film Festival.
She is an alumni of 2021 Cannes Docs, Hot Docs Accelerator Lab, RIDM Talent Lab, the winner of the Lindalee Tracey Award (Hot Docs’18), and the winner of the Don Haig Award, Pay It Forward Prize (Hot Docs’19). And Still I Sing is Fazila’s first feature documentary film.
