Mina Walking

Yosef Baraki : 2015

Dying to learn, energetic and rebellious, it is hard to believe just how much young Mina from Kabul manages to achieve in a country where men call all the shots and life is full of challenges. Her father is a useless junkie, her grandfather senile and helpless and her mother was killed by the Taliban. She fetches water and cooks their meals. She sews, washes clothes and sells cheap trinkets on the street for a pittance. Relying on Mina's income to fuel his addiction and her presence to nurse her grandfather, Omar, Mina's father forbids her to attend school. But Mina is an impulsive twelve-year-old and witnessing the country's nascent emancipation inspires her to neglect her father's orders and secretly attend classes in her local school. Over the course of the seven days that lead up to Afghanistan's first democratic transfer of power, Mina's decision to secretly educate herself instead of looking after her grandfather sets in motion a chain of events that change her life forever. Shot on Kabul's turbulent streets in a quasi-documentary style, the film portrays the severity of life in this war-torn country. Yosef Baraki's feature debut premiered in the Generation 14plus section at Berlin International Film Festival 2015.