I’ve been updating my IMDB and just realised I never posted about ‘Parvana’, a project I shot while living in Berlin for the Afghan director Abbas Mohammad Ayyoubi. Abbas is an incredible guy, who escaped single handed from US occupied Afghanistan, and made his way over a number of years and countless adventures to Berlin. It was his first film, and made on an absolutely microscopic budget, with an enthusiastic team of Afghan ex-pats. Shooting a film in a language you don’t speak, without a shotlist or storyboard is quite the experience. Despite obvious challenges, the opportunity to meet and work with such inspirational, kind and generous people, and to enjoy home cooked Afghan food, is one I treasure. The film is still in it’s festival run, but here’s a teaser I cut last year.

Credits:

A Film by Abbas Mohammad Ayyoubi

Written, directed – Abbas Mohammad ayyoubi

Cast

Yalda Safi
Marzia Hashemi
Soory Saeedi
Jamal Abbasi
Sohab Junus

DOP

Gareth Stack

Lighting

Mark luis

Sound

Ali Yaqubi

Editor

Mark Esper

Makeup Artist

Mozhgan Isar

Assistant director

Mark Luis

Tau Tau Menghan-Menghan Wang

Extras

FARZANE
MAHBOBA
JAMILA
Rowyda
Rayhan

Creative Adviser

Daniel J Gerstle

With help of

Lisa smith
Eva welling
Carla Bäumer
Noorzai Ibrahimi
Thomas scholtes

Special thanks to

Maddie Asadi
Humanitarian bazar
Hider yaser Taheri
Mehdi
Votjta Hönig
Bilal Ayyoubi