‘Taliban are as Cruel as Before but They are More Smart Now’: Afghanistan Filmmakers Make Emotional Plea for Support at Venice

was re-written to address current events in Afghanistan following the recent withdrawal of U.S. troops.

Ed Meza @edmezavarDirector Michael Steiner opens this year’s Zurich Film Festival with “And Tomorrow We Will Be Dead,” a timely thriller about a real-life Swiss couple captured by the Taliban while traveling through Pakistan in 2011.The film is sure to generate headlines in view of the recent Taliban victory in Afghanistan that followed the withdrawal of U.S. forces.

Editor’s Note: Hollie McKay’s latest special report for Deadline finds the veteran foreign affairs correspondent and Only Cry for the Living: Memos from Inside the ISIS Battlefield author writing from Kabul about the disinformation campaigns across the Taliban-ruled South Asian nation.

Editor’s note: In another special report for Deadline, veteran foreign affairs correspondent and Only Cry for the Living: Memos from Inside the ISIS Battlefield author Hollie McKay is back in Kabul to cover the nation’s return to Taliban rule, almost 20 years after American forces ejected the fundamentalist group from power. One in a series of Deadline stories tied to the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

the art houses led to criticism that he had wasted his undisputed talent – something he always denied.

A powerful panel to discuss the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan and the role the artistic community can play in increasing awareness was held at the Venice Film Festival this afternoon. It was notably attended by Afghan filmmakers Sahraa Karimi and Sahra Mani.

Manori Ravindran International EditorPaul Schrader says his movie “The Card Counter,” in which Oscar Isaac plays a former Abu Ghraib interrogator who did jail time for his actions, is “not about redoing history” but rather focusing on one soldier’s memory — a cinematic theme he predicts will recur as U.S.

Cori Shepherd Stern, Oscar-nominated filmmaker and social-change strategist who helped Afghan girls come to school in the U.S., told The New York Times. “These men were quite literally going into the masses and pulling our women to safety, while coordinating with our guy to find them.

"Real Housewives of New Jersey" alum Rosie Pierri took time out of her day to acknowledge a pair of US soldiers currently serving in Afghanistan. The former reality TV star commented on a Fox News Instagram post highlighting two soldiers who helped an Afghan woman evacuate from Kabul.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentThe upcoming Venice Film Festival is set to become a focal point for discussion on the crisis underway in Afghanistan and how it is impacting filmmakers and Afghan artists in general as the Taliban take power.As previously reported by Variety, Afghan filmmaker Sahraa Karimi, who is the first woman president of the country’s national film entity Afghan Film –– and made a recent appeal as she escaped from Kabul about the return of Taliban rule and the

“So America is no longer the world’s policeman, we’re the world’s student loan officer,” said Bill Maher tonight of Joe Biden’s pledge to “hunt you down and make you pay” the perpetrators of yesterday’s horrific attack outside Kabul Airport.

Editors Note: Over the horrendous last couple of weeks as America began its final withdrawal from Afghanistan and Taliban zealots took control again after two decades, veteran foreign affairs correspondent and Only Cry for the Living: Memos from Inside the ISIS Battlefield author Hollie McKay has been back in the South Asian nation to see history sadly repeat itself.

Editors Note: Over the horrendous last couple of weeks as America began its final withdrawal from Afghanistan and Taliban zealots took control again after two decades, veteran foreign affairs correspondent and Only Cry for the Living: Memos from Inside the ISIS Battlefield author Hollie McKay has been back in the South Asian nation to see history sadly repeat itself.

debunked claim that the U.S.

Editor’s note: Seasoned foreign affairs correspondent and Only Cry for the Living: Memos from Inside the ISIS Battlefield author Hollie McKay recently returned to Afghanistan to cover the planned U.S. troop withdrawal.

Perth and Kinross Council has said the region has to take as many desperate Afghan refugees it can in response to the humanitarian crisis in the war-torn nation. Up to 20,000 Afghans could seek asylum in the UK and Perth and Kinross Council’s four political groups have all expressed a willingness to help.