By Karl Quinn
The night the Taliban recaptured Kabul, and with it Afghanistan, is forever seared in Nazifa Hamdani’s memory.
“Every girl in Afghanistan was shocked that night,” says the 25-year-old, a qualified civil engineer, and now, with her contribution to the portmanteau movie My Melbourne, a screenwriter. “We knew the Taliban will shut out everything for women.”
Sisters Setara Amiri (left) and Nazifa Hamdani, the respective star and writer of the Setara chapter of My Melbourne.Credit: Wayne Taylor
Any woman would have had reason to fear the return of the misogynist fundamentalists to power in August 2021 after 20 years – and an educated woman more so. But an educated woman who played cricket? Well, that was like having a target on your back.
Within minutes of the news breaking, word spread that the zealots were actively looking for women who had played sports, intending to execute them. (Within days, the Taliban began freeing men jailed by female judges for crimes against women, encouraging them to seek “justice” of their own.)
“It was terrifying,” says Hamdani. “We didn’t know if we will survive or not, to be honest. Because if the Taliban found out we are part of the Afghanistan team, it might be we never see Australia.”
To survive, the women felt they needed to erase all traces of their sporting life.
Setara Amiri and Brad Hodge film a scene for My Melbourne. Credit: Mind Blowing Films
“I was burning our medals and trophies and dress, and burning our certificates,” says Hamdani. “Within five minutes, everything was gone.”
That moment of panic features in Setara, one of the four chapters of My Melbourne. There’s also a chapter about a gay Indian man whose disapproving father comes to visit; a lonely Indian woman living in terror of her abusive husband – and lying to her family back home about what a success her life in Australia is; and a tale of a deaf woman who dreams of a career as a dancer.
The films were made by novice writers and directors under the mentorship of some of Indian cinema’s leading names: Onir, Imtiaz Ali, Rima Das and Kabir Khan.
Produced by Mitu Bhowmick Lange – whose Mind Blowing Films is the largest distributor of Indian movies in Australia, and whose Indian Film Festival of Melbourne has become a major annual event – My Melbourne has just opened locally and will soon screen in 22 cities in India, the first Australian film to do so since Lion in 2017.
From left: Nazifa Hamdani, Mitu Bhowmick Lange and Setara Amiri.Credit: Wayne Taylor
The story Hamdani tells in Setara is drawn from real life, and the experience is partly hers and partly her sister Firoza’s. But it’s their younger sister, Setara Amiri, who brings it to life.
Setara was just 15 and spoke no English when the family arrived in Australia in late 2021. She was among 135 members of the national women’s team and their family members granted asylum, thanks to the efforts of a small group of women here who pushed hard and fast to get them out of the country.
Now 18, Setara shines as the young woman torn between family obligation, fear and the burning desire to play the game she loves.
Lange first saw her in early 2022 at a function thrown for the Afghan women’s soccer team, which had also been granted asylum. They had no language in common, but the pair connected over smiles, eye contact and a shared love for the Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, whose poster adorned the wall of the room where they met.
“He is the universal glue, I feel,” says Lange. “Suddenly the women in the room were like, ‘Oh, Shah Rukh Khan,’ and they all came and sat next to me, and we just totally bonded.”
As the women shared their stories, Lange realised she had found thefinal component of the film she had been working on since 2019.
“One of the things that was common in pretty much everybody’s stories was the fear and the panic that they felt,” she says.
When she relayed the story of the Amiri girls to director Kabir Khan, “he didn’t even let me finish the sentence. He was like, ‘That’s our story, so let’s start working’.”
Setara doesn’t just act in the film. She plays too. She’s a fast bowler, and according to former Australian cricketer Brad Hodge, who plays the coach of the girls’ high school team in the film, she’s got some form.
“Setara is an amazing person with brilliant skills,” he says.
For Setara, there is an element of destiny fulfilled in this turn of events.
“Because my dad chose my name – Setara means star – and I want to be an actress,” she says. “It was my dream to be an actress when I was in Afghanistan. My dad always said, ‘You’re gonna be a Hollywood star’.”
And how did he respond when you landed this part? “He was like, ‘See, I told you’.”
Must-see movies, interviews and all the latest from the world of film delivered to your inbox. Sign up for our Screening Room newsletter.