166 min. Dari.
Hamas-e eshq is a historical epic that follows a family feud spanning two-generations that is played out on the buzkashi field and two young lovers who defy their families’ expectations and pay a tragic price. Nemat Arash plays Sharif and Sabera Arash plays Mazari, an Afghan Romeo and Juliet who try to flee, but ultimately get caught up in the rivalry between the buzkashi dynasties represented by their fathers (Asadullah Aram and Qader Faroukh). Yasamin Yarmal plays Pari, the best friend of the reckless Mazari, and famously sings a folk song about the red tulips that bloom briefly every spring in Mazar-e Sharif, where the film was shot (for the reshoots of this scene, the crew had to wait an entire year until the flowers bloomed again). The other characters include a villainous group of bandits led by Rafiq Zarghar. The score makes artful use of tabla solos, rabab, and synthesizers. It is one of the most popular Afghan films of all time, and still aired on television every year at Eid. (Mariam Ghani / Sandra Schäfer)
Latif Ahmadi was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1950. His one of Afghanistan’s most prolific and well-known filmmakers. He studied engineering at the Kabul Polytechnic University. In the early 1970s, together with Toryalai Shafaq and Juwansher Haidary, he founded Ariana Films, Afghanistan’s first private film production company. He spent the 1990s in exile in Moscow. In 2001, he returned to Afghanistan, where he served as the head of the national film institute and archive until 2013. He recently produced a series on Afghan film history for Ariana TV.
