Kamay

synopsis

A Hazara family from Afghanistan seeks justice after the death of their daughter at Kabul University.

Freshta and her family are Hazaras, a people from central Afghanistan that have suffered centuries of state persecution and genocide. Freshta’s elder sister, Zahra, committed suicide a few weeks before her graduation from Kabul University, after her thesis research on the local plant ‘Kamay’ was rejected several times by her professor. Guided by the words and questions the grieving Freshta asks herself about her sister, we follow the family’s struggle for justice.

about the director

Ilyas Yourish is an Afghan filmmaker and producer currently based in Brussels, Belgium. He graduated from the Faculty of Journalism at Kabul University and has been working as a researcher, journalist and filmmaker since 2011. He has travelled extensively through Afghanistan over the past decade and has been involved in several research and media projects in Afghanistan, which places him at the cradle of contemporary, Afghan cinema. He founded the production company Kamay Film, based between Kabul and Belgium, in 2021, and represents his own film as one of the co-producers.

Shahrokh Bikaran is a director, producer, composer and sound designer. Born in Afghanistan, he graduated from Tehran Film School in 2016 in Directing. He also studied sound engineering at Tehran Technical and Vocational University. Shahrokh participated in the production of nearly 10 films as a composer, sound designer and sound engineer. He began his artistic career with experimental music as a teenager, when he was a refugee in Iran.