SBS, Al Jazeera, SVT pick up Afghanistan doc My Childhood from Bomanbridge

Seventh Art doc My Childhood, My Country – 20 Years in Afghanistan

Broadcasters in Scandinavia, Belgium and the Middle East have picked up documentary feature My Childhood, My Country: 20 Years in Afghanistan, distributor Bomanbridge Media has announced.

The film, which premiered on ITV in the UK yesterday, has been acquired by channels including SBS in Australia, Al Jazeera in the Middle East and SVT in Sweden, to air later this month or in October.

YLE in Finland and VRT in Belgium will also air the film, marking the 20th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan.

Directed by award-winning British and Afghan filmmakers Phil Grabsky and Shoaib Sharifi via UK-based independent production company Seventh Art Productions, the film was produced in partnership with Franco-German public broadcasters WDR and Arte.

The documentary centres on Mir Hussain, who begins the film as an eight-year-old boy living in a cave amid the rubble of the destroyed Buddhas of Bamiyan statues. It follows his life through 9/11, the War on Terror and his experiences of fatherhood and ends with him living in modern-day Kabul.

“No-one could have anticipated the adventures we have all been on over the past 20 years as we made this film – a film that sought to see what the result of the international intervention would be and what became of £2.3tn of investment,” said Grabsky and Sharifi in a statement.

“This is the only film now that can portray in first person such a clear perspective on the trajectory of the last 20 years in Afghanistan,” added Sonia Fleck, CEO of Bomanbridge Media.