Venice (AFP)

Poignant testimony Saturday at the Venice festival, where two Afghan filmmakers recounted the dramatic situation in which the Taliban's seizure of power plunged artistic circles, calling on the international community to mobilize.

"In just two weeks, the brightest elements left the country, at least those who could," Sahraa Karimi, 38-year-old director who won awards at several festivals, recalled at a press conference. on the sidelines of the festival on the situation of Afghan filmmakers and artists.

“Imagine a country without artists!”, She launched to the journalists present, in which the director of the Mostra Alberto Barbera had mingled.

The young woman, her pale face framed by thick brown hair, returned to the cataclysm caused by the capture of Kabul by the Taliban in mid-August: "Everything stopped in the space of a few hours. The archives are now under the control of the Taliban. The work of the directors disappeared in a few hours. Some were able to leave with their computers, others nothing at all. "

"This sudden collapse made us lose everything", added his colleague Sahra Mani, author in particular of a documentary on a victim of incest, "A thousand girls like me".

Afghan directors Sahraa Karimi and Sahra Mani (d) at the Venice film festival, September 4, 2021 Filippo MONTEFORTE AFP

As an example, this apparently shy but determined woman cited the situation of the only mixed music school in Kabul: "The Taliban are occupying the premises, they have destroyed the instruments and the students are in hiding", underlines- she, her throat tight, regretting that all the work done in recent years has gone up in smoke.

- "Help us!"

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The one who had become in 2019 the first woman to chair the Afghan Film Organization also reconsidered her own hasty flight: "Sunday August 15, I started my day normally, and a few hours later, I had to take the most difficult decision of my life: stay or leave my country ".

"Everything flew away, everything was wiped out," she noted with bitterness.

"We are actors, directors and producers, we are not politicians. We just wanted to make our dreams come true."

The one who presents the exiled artists as "ambassadors of Afghan identity" called for distrust of the Taliban: "Not only are they more cruel, but they are also smarter thanks to their use of information technologies".

"We can be saved by the international community," she hoped.

"Help us! We need hope".

"Please be our spokespersons and speak about our situation", echoed Sahara Mani.

At the end of August, another Afghan director, Shahrbanoo Sadat, had been able to leave her country and be welcomed in France.

In Venice, the two Afghan women were surrounded by several members of the International Coalition for Filmmakers in Danger (ICFA), a movement founded a year ago in Venice to help artists in countries like Burma for example.

"We must stand up and help (Afghan artists). They must be saved and be able to continue their work," said Syrian director Orwa Nyrabia, director of the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival.

In Afghanistan today, "the status of artist puts you in danger, you are at the top of the list", he warned.

"We ourselves have an interest in safeguarding them, it is in our interest".

© 2021 AFP