Rainbow beyond the Taliban cloud

Marina, says Barmak, is upset because she fears that the end of filming means she will have to return to her former life as a street beggar. After looking at more than 3,000 children in Afghanistan’s schools and orphanages, Barmak found the perfect star of his self-penned tragedy Rainbow in a gutter outside a Kabul restaurant.

Barmak is banking on Marina and a cast of other Afghan amateurs to project his film, the tale of a young girl growing up under the oppressive regime of the hardline Taliban militia, onto international cinema screens.

He expects to present his 90-minute debut feature, scripted in Afghanistan’s two main languages of Dari and Pashtu, to the selectors at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in France. Barmak returned to his homeland after the collapse of the Taliban in late 2001.

With backing from Japanese media company NHK and Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, who garnered worldwide praise for his 2001 odyssey Kandahar — also set in Afghanistan but filmed in Iran — Rainbow is a strong contender.

Despite a paltry budget, Barmak’s attempt to convey the horrors of the Taliban to a wider audience has taken on epic proportions. Barmak hopes such potent images, likely to pave the way for other movie makers willing to ignore ongoing security risks.