At Five in the Afternoon (2003)

AKA:
Panj é Asr >> Afghani
At Five in the Afternoon >> English
Fünf Uhr am Nachmittag >> German

Synopsis:
In a devastated Afghanistan post-Taliban, Nogreh is a woman that goes to a school without the knowledge of her conservative father who sees blasphemy everywhere. She dreams of becoming President of Afghanistan, but wears a burqa and fears her father. She is interested to know whether there are other women presidents in addition to the Pakistani prime-minister Benazir Bhutto, and wants to know what their speeches were so that they were elected president. Nogreh wanders with her father and her sister-in-law Leylomah with her baby in a buggy with their old horse. Leylomah is seeking-out her missing husband Akhtar and can't feed her baby as she's starving. Along their travel for survival, they see their country devastated by war and misery.

At Five in the Afternoon (Persian: Panj é asr) is a 2003 film by Iranian writer-director Samira Makhmalbaf. It tells the story of an ambitious young woman trying to gain an education in Afghanistan after the defeat of the Taliban. The title comes from a Federico García Lorca poem and is a tale of flourishing against the odds.

At Five in the Afternoon was the first film to be shot in Kabul after the NATO invasion. It was an international co-production between the Iranian company Makhmalbaf Productions and the French companies Bac Films and Wild Bunch. The film premiered at Cannes in 2003 and was awarded the Jury Prize and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury.

Samira's 14-year old sister Hana Makhmalbaf made a documentary about the making of the film, entitled Joy of Madness (Lezate divanegi). It documents Samira's trials and tribulations whilst trying to persuade people in Kabul to take part in her film. As a teenager, Hana was able to amass a lot of digital video footage unnoticed.

Starring:
Agheleh Rezaie
Abdolgani Yousefrazi
Razi Mohebi

Director: Samira Makhmalbaf
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