Barmak Akram

KABULI KID

Screening room

Status: Completed

Director(s): Barmak Akram

Main cast: Haji Gul Aser, Valéry Schatz, Amélie Glenn

Short synopsis : A taxi driver in Kabul searches for the mother of a 6-month-old baby left in the back of his cab. Poignant, rich, vibrant, KABUKLI KID is a remarkable portrait of one man's emotional awakening in a city struggling to return to life after 25 years of violent conflict. '''Central do Brazil' in Afghanistan.''

Long synopsis : Kabul, today. A city struggling to recover from 25 years of warfare. At the crowded bus station, taxi driver Khaled picks up a woman and baby. Her face is hidden behind a blue burqa. They settle on a price, she pays him and they drive off. The taxi arrives at its destination. The woman gets out and a new passenger climbs in... to find the baby still in the backseat. Khaled leaps out after the woman but can’t find her. He’s left holding the baby - a boy, just 6 months old. There’s no way to tell who he is. Khaled takes the baby home. His wife’s given him 3 girls – but no son. Yet he can’t keep the one he’s found. The next day he goes to the police, but it’s not their affair. He tries an orphanage, but they don’t take kids under 5. The director of a humanitarian NGO says he’ll give the mother $100 if she appears. It’s all he can do. Khaled takes the baby to the radio station. An announcement is aired, and the following day, five women turn up to collect the $100. But Khaled knows how to identify the real mom: he spotted a mole on her ankle when she climbed into his taxi. He asks around - friends, strangers in the street. He returns to where he picked the woman up. Nothing. Fate has placed in his hands a young life for which he feels more and more responsible. An eventful, chaotic, often highly comic journey through a city which itself is simply trying to survive. Poignant, rich, vibrant, Barmak Akram's debut feature is a remarkable portrait of one man's emotional awakening in a city returning to crazy life after 25 years of violent conflict. '' 'Central do Brazil' in Afghanistan.''