Irish photojournalist and filmmaker Seamus Murphy (A Dog Named Money) is producing a feature-length documentary that tells the extraordinary story of a resilient Afghan family forced to flee their war-torn country. As they struggle to rebuild their lives in exile, they face new challenges.
The Beautiful and the Damned is produced by BAFTA award-winning Irish producer David Lane for Soilsiú Films and co-produced by Catherine Siméon of Faites un voeu (France) and Heino Deckert of Ma.ja.de (Germany). Murphy is presenting the project at a pitching forum at Thessaloniki International Airport. The documentary festival will run from March 5th to 15th.
Speaking to Variety from Thessaloniki, Murphy, whose last feature film, “A Dog Called Money,” about award-winning British musician PJ Harvey, premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2019, said his latest film is a 30-year personal project built on a friendship forged in the midst of conflict 30 years ago. “(Until now) I never thought something like this would last,” he said.
The director, who developed his talents as a photojournalist in Afghanistan in the 1990s, recalled his formative years covering the bloody conflict in Kabul. “I had no experience. I had no training in harsh conditions or anything. At that time, something like this was unheard of,” he said.
“It was horrible. It was a terrible civil war. It was really, really bitter,” he continued. “But the people were really amazing. In war situations, people often show their worst as well as their best. It was very moving and very decisive.”
It was around this time that Murphy met the Ba Delis, one of the few families still living in the ruins of old Kabul. The war had already taken a heavy toll on them. Two of their six sons died in battle. Another lost a leg in a rocket attack. Still, they immediately “made us feel welcome,” the coach said.
“Knowing them gave me a deeper and more personal understanding of the grim statistics of war,” he continued. As his time in Afghanistan came to an end, “after all the blood and guts and turmoil,” Murphy decided to do something “a little more sane, a little more hopeful.” “At that point I decided to document their lives,” he says.
When Murphy returned home, he began taking photos of his family. Then, in 2014, I made a short film for Channel 4 in the UK related to the upcoming Afghan elections. With President Obama’s declaration that U.S. troops would soon withdraw from Afghanistan, ending decades of U.S. military involvement in the country, Murphy acknowledged that “change is afoot.”
“I thought it was an interesting way (to tell the story) to involve the family in it,” he said. “That was the seed[for the feature film]. I thought there was so much more I could do with it.”
Over the next few years, even after Farfuddin and Farhad were forced to flee Afghanistan, Murphy continued to document their lives. In Germany, Farhad is struggling to provide a stable home for his family in an unfamiliar land where refugees, especially Afghans, often face severe discrimination. Meanwhile, in Turkey, Farhuddin anxiously awaits his citizenship interview, knowing he will almost certainly face death if he is deported to Afghanistan, where he is on the Taliban’s execution list.
But through the family’s struggles, the years have also brought moments of joy. Murphy himself often works as a wedding photographer, but in addition to having a baby, there’s also a marriage, and a whole new generation of Ba Deli are being brought into the world, finding their place in the world and learning for themselves how to live out their Afghan identity.
“The Beautiful and the Damned” is based on Murphy’s extensive archive of photographic and video material. He chronicles the Ba Deri family’s life during the war and in exile, while also reflecting on what three decades of upheaval meant to their homeland. “There’s a lot of material, not just about my family, but about Afghanistan,” he said, documenting the huge changes the society has undergone since the director’s first visit more than 30 years ago.
But above all, this film is a human portrait of the Ba Deli family, and a recognition that their story sadly reflects the experiences of millions of people today.
“We hear about refugees. We hear their stories in newspaper articles and TV reports. We get a glimpse of what they’re going through,” Murphy said. “But I think the emotional side of their lives as real individuals is important in this work. I try to portray them as individuals that you empathize with and get to know and like, and you root for them.”
Thessaloniki International Airport Documentary Festival will be held from March 5th to 15th.
