Afghanistan's National Film Institution Dismantled

The Interim administration has officially downgraded Afghan Film, the country's sole state-run film production and archival institution, renaming it the“Audiovisual Management Department.” According to Sahraa Karimi, former director of Afghan Film, the restructuring has resulted in the dismissal of most of its employees and the erasure of the institution's historic identity.

Karimi, who served as the head of Afghan Film before the fall of Kabul in August 2021, revealed in a social media post that only a handful of administrative staff remain. Their main responsibility, she stated, is now limited to fulfilling the propaganda and media needs of the Taliban regime.

Founded in 1968, Afghan Film played a crucial role in documenting Afghanistan's social and political transformations over the decades. It preserved a valuable archive of documentaries, feature films, news footage, and historical visual records, serving as the nation's cinematic memory. Karimi described the erasure of the institution's name and structure as a severe blow to the cultural and cinematic history of Afghanistan.

In recent years, Afghan Film not only nurtured artistic talent but also stood as a rare space for free creative expression in a country often torn by conflict. Despite decades of political instability, the institution remained active through monarchy, communism, civil war, and democratic periods. It was internationally recognized for its efforts in restoring Afghanistan's lost cinematic heritage.

Karimi warned that the existing visual archive-documenting over a century of political, cultural, and social life in Afghanistan-is now at risk of ideological seizure or total destruction. She emphasized that this development marks a systematic attempt by the Taliban to enforce cultural erasure, distort collective memory, and monopolize narrative control.

The closure and rebranding of Afghan Film aligns with the Taliban's broader efforts to suppress artistic and cultural expression. Since retaking power, the group has imposed stringent bans on film production, photography, and visual media under their interpretation of Islamic law. The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has banned images of living beings, rendering film and cinema functionally illegal.

This action also reflects a wider Taliban campaign to eliminate institutions that provide pluralistic or progressive representations of Afghan society, particularly those that include women and minority voices. Experts argue that such policies risk isolating Afghanistan from global cultural discourse and permanently damaging its artistic legacy.

The dismantling of Afghan Film is not just an administrative change-it is part of a systematic cultural purge. To preserve the country's cinematic heritage, international organizations such as UNESCO, the World Cinema Project, and diaspora-led initiatives must intensify efforts to digitize and protect Afghan Film's archives. The international community has a responsibility to safeguard cultural memory, especially when it is threatened by authoritarian regimes.

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