Afghan idol: Acclaimed documentary at DFT shows pop culture going forward in embattled country

Since 2005, millions of viewers in Afghanistan have been tuning in the country’s hugely popular American Idol-style series, Afghan Star. Just like on the U.S. show (and others that popped up around the world), people compete for a cash prize and record contract. Most surprisingly, perhaps, the contest is open to everyone across the country regardless of gender, ethnicity or age. Something unheard of during the reigh of the Taliban.

Winner of the Directing and Audience Awards in Sundance’s 2009 World Documentary competition, director Havana Marking’s timely and entertaining film follows the stories of four young finalists — two men and two women — as they go to great lengths and risk everything to become the nation’s favorite performer. In documenting the Afghani people’s relationship to pop culture, Afghan Star opens a window into this embattled country’s struggle for modernity. What Americans may consider frivolous entertainment becomes an act of revolutionary humanism. In English, Dari and Pashto, with English subtitles, the film is 88 minutes in length.

At the Detroit Film Theatre, Nov. 13 at 9:30 p.m.; Nov. 15 at 4 p.m.; and Nov. 20 at 9:30 p.m. For ticket info go here. The DFT is accessed from the John R entrance of the Detroit Institute of Arts, 5200 Woodward, in Detroit’s Midtown.