My Motherland Synopsis
The psychology of Afghan women under decades of war and oppression depicted through visual sequences combining intermingling scenes from both the realms of reality and dreams.
My Motherland was an official selection of the 2016 WVN Online Film Festival.
About the Filmmakers
Fazila Amiri is an Afghan-Canadian filmmaker. She graduated from NSCAD University (BFA, Film Production) in Canada in 2012. Her short films, “Paaizeb” (2010), “My Motherland” (2015), “Laila Forever” (2015) have been shown at national and international film festivals including the 41st Montreal World Film Festival (Canada), 31st Atlantic Film Festival (Canada), 5th Passion for Freedom Festival (London), and Aga Khan Museum (Canada). Currently she is an MFA Film Production candidate at York University in Toronto.
Hangama Amiri graduated from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design (NSCAD) University with a BFA in 2012 and is currently a Fulbright student at Yale University. She has exhibited her paintings nationally and internationally, and recently exhibited in New York, Toronto, and London. Her first solo exhibition, The Wind-Up Dolls of Kabul, was displayed at the Anna Leonowens Gallery, 2011. Two paintings from The Wind-Up Dolls series were selected for IV Passion for Freedom Festival London (UK), 2012.
Her collaborative project, “Dome of Secret Desires,” was shortlisted at 5th Passion For Freedom Festival London (UK), 2013, and her recent collaborative experimental film, “My Motherland” 2015, was premiered at Aga Khan Museum in Toronto. Amiri has won the 2011 Lieutenant Governor’s Community Voluntarism Award, the 2013 Portia White Protege Award, and in 2015 her painting, “Island of Dreams,” won Honourable Mention at RBC Canadian Painting Competition. Currently, she is doing independent research as a Canadian Fulbright student at Yale University in New York.
