The first thing you might recall upon emerging from Ibrahim Nash’at’s mesmerically disturbing “Hollywoodgate” – once you’ve chipped away the ice forming over your hear…
The first thing you might recall upon emerging from Ibrahim Nash’at’s mesmerically disturbing “” – once you’ve chipped away the ice forming over your heart – is just how little beauty it contains. This is not an idle aesthetic observation. From the large-scale industrial brutalism of the eponymous abandoned US airbase in Kabul, to a snatched shot of a Talib beating a burqa-clad woman on the street, to the frequent, petty acts of littering and despoliation, the ugliness is very much the point.
Just how Egyptian journalist and filmmaker Nash’at gained such unprecedented access to one of the most forbiddingly secretive cabals in the world, is a story of persistence worthy of a movie of its own. But it is mere prologue to “Hollywoodgate” which begins after the briefest contextualization through Nash’at’s own soft-spoken, heartsore voiceover, on his first day of filming. It is August 31st, 2021, the day after the last US soldier left Afghanistan.
In parallel, we spend time with Mukhtar, as he runs errands for Mansour. Like all the low-ranking Taliban on the base, he is deferential towards his his, proudly displaying photos of them together and talking openly to Nash’at about his desire to rise through the hierarchy to a position of greater power and responsibility.
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