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Storyville

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Storyville

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1997

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Documentary

Summary

BBC documentary strand featuring contemporary one-off films from around the world that cover a wide range of genres and subjects and have compelling narratives and character-based stories.

Hollywoodgate

Summary

Cameras follow Taliban leaders over the course of a year as they unearth part of an estimated seven billion dollars worth of military equipment that American troops left behind. They repair and repaint fighter jets and Black Hawk helicopters in preparation for a military parade

Review

Jane Rackham

“That little devil is filming again,” mutters one Taliban fighter when Egyptian film-maker Ibrahim Nash’at gets a little too close with his camera in this Storyville documentary.

Nash’at has been given unprecedented access to the Afghan fighters based at a former CIA stronghold outside Kabul, abandoned (with a treasure trove of $7 billion-worth of military equipment still on the ground) by the Americans in 2021. But he’s there under sufferance: they threaten to kill him if he “misbehaves”. It’s too dangerous for him to conduct any in-depth interviews but it’s still a chilling glimpse of the Taliban’s despicable attitudes.