15 Essential Documentaries About Afghanistan, From Taxi to the Dark Side to Hell and

Posted by Larita Shotwell on Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Documentaries about Afghanistan have proliferated as the U.S. war dragged on for nearly 20 years. As U.S. military forces withdraw from the region, here’s a look at these disparate works, which have tackled everything from the Central Asian nation’s long history of conflict to military interrogation techniques, battlefield conditions and the repressive climate for women.

Michael Moore’s Cannes Palme d’Or winning “Fahrenheit 9/11,” first out of the gate in 2004, focused more tightly on then-President George W. Bush, Osama bin Laden and Saudi Arabia than Afghanistan and the U.S. invasion there in October 2001. Alex Gibney’s Oscar-winning “Taxi to the Dark Side,” by contrast, centered on the death of an Afghan cab driver at a U.S. military base; the film debuted at Tribeca Film Festival in 2007 and won the Academy Award for documentary in 2008.

In the years since, documentary filmmakers have increasingly turned their lens on soldiers in the field and the plight of women in the region. “Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)” won the Oscar for documentary short last year, while the latest in a series of “Frontline” documentaries about Afghanistan debuted July 20 on the eve of the U.S. military’s wrenching departure from the country.

Here are 15 documentaries that offer insights on the chaos now engulfing Afghanistan.

  • Taxi to the Dark Side (2007)

    Alex Gibney wrote, directed and produced this Oscar-winning documentary, which used the 2002 death of an Afghan cab driver at the U.S. military base in Bagram as a jumping off point to examine military interrogation practices. The torture scenes are disturbing on a visceral level, Variety’s reviewer noted, but the transformation of the soldiers to carry out these measures is also chilling. “Gibney has crafted more than just an important document of systemic abuse — he’s stripped the rhetoric from official doublespeak to expose a callous disregard for not only the Geneva Conventions but the vision of the Founding Fathers,” the review states. “Taxi to the Dark Side” premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in 2007 before going on to win the Academy Award for feature documentary.

  • Restrepo (2010)

    Journalists Sebastian Junger and the late Tim Hetherington made a series of trips to Afghanistan beginning in 2007, chronicling the battle between the U.S. Army forces against the Taliban in the treacherous Korengal Valley. The two turned their footage into “an often electrifying verité trip into combat and the hearts of men,” per Variety’s reviewer. The Nat Geo documentary debuted at Sundance in 2010, where it won a grand jury prize, and was Oscar nominated. Hetherington was killed in Libya the following year, but Junger followed up “Restrepo” with “Korengal” in 2014.

  • The Tillman Story (2010)

    A domestic counterpart to “Restrepo,” which debuted at Sundance the same year, “The Tillman Story” unraveled the friendly-fire death of Pat Tillman, the football star turned soldier, in Afghanistan. Directed by Amir Bar-Lev, the film shows how Tillman’s family uncovered the truth of his 2004 death: the former athlete did not die heroically saving fellow soldiers, as they were originally told, but from U.S. military fire. The New York Times called the documentary sorrowful and devastating, noting that the surviving family members are portrayed “as finer, more morally sturdy people than the cynical chain of command that lied to them and used their son as a propaganda tool.”

  • Camp Victory, Afghanistan (2010)

    The first in Carol Dysinger’s trilogy of films about Afghanistan post 9/11 was crafted from 300 hours of footage shot over the course of three years. The documentary, which debuted at SXSW, depicts a revolving door of National Guard soldiers that arrive at a remote army outpost to train Afghan military. “A clear-eyed look at an irretrievably messy situation, the docu seems miles away from the life-and-death tension of a combat-centered film like ‘Restrepo,’” Variety’s review noted at the time, praising the documentary for demonstrating that “the war to win the hearts and minds of Afghan soldiers carries its own perils and paradoxes.”

  • Hell and Back Again (2011)

    Danfung Dennis embedded himself with a Marine platoon during the summer 2009 insurgency against the Taliban in Afghanistan, following wounded soldier Nathan Harris home, where he recovered from severe leg injuries. The documentary won two Sundance awards and received an Oscar nomination. Variety’s critic praised the doc’s layered perspective, noting that Dennis “vigorously embraces a grunt’s eye view of war and its aftereffects.”

  • No Burqas Behind Bars (2012)

    Iranian emigre Nima Sarvestani directed and Maryam Ebrahimi produced this 2012 Swedish documentary about the repressive conditions in an Afghan women’s prison. It follows three women who have been jailed for moral crimes after leaving abusive households or arranged marriages. Released in the U.S. in 2013, it won an international Emmy award in 2014.

  • The Kill Team (2013)

    This documentary from Dan Krauss examines a “kill team,” an infantry platoon which intentionally murdered innocent Afghan civilians while making it appear they were terrorists. A 21-year-old private attempted to alert military brass to the war crimes but these pleas went unheeded. The film, which Variety described as a true-life horror story, won the jury prize at Tribeca in 2013 and an Indie Spirit award in 2015. The writer-director adapted the documentary into a 2019 film of the same name starring Nat Wolff and Alexander Skarsgard.

  • Korengal (2014)

    Sebastian Junger picked up where “Restrepo” left off with this 2014 documentary about the war in Afghanistan that Variety dubbed “a less harrowing, more reflective dispatch from the front lines, and an equally vital examination of the strange crucible of selflessness, courage, bloodlust, range, confusion and fear endured by the brave men interviewed here.” Junger made it without “Restrepo” collaborator Tim Hetherington, who was killed in Libya after the earlier documentary was made. Junger funded the release of “Korengal” with a Kickstarter campaign.

  • Bitter Lake (2015)

    Director Adam Curtis took the unedited rushes of everything the BBC shot in Afghanistan to depict all that had happened in the prior three decades to that country, showing the role of Saudi Arabia and Western politicians played in the region. The impressionistic film premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, at which time the New Yorker noted the “mix of highbrow subjects and sophisticated, if lowbrow, technique” that anchors Curtis’ sensibility. The documentary went on to screen at the True/False fest and Telluride that year.

  • Snow Monkey (2015)

    A veteran of war zones from Rwanda, Somalia, Bosnia and Iraq, Australian director George Gittoes established the Yellow House Jalalabad in 2011 as a cultural center, releasing his first documentary about Afghanistan in 2013. He followed that up with “Snow Monkey,” recruiting children to shoot footage they could sell while peddling ice cream. “Snow Monkey” was nominated for several awards by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts. As Variety noted upon its release, “Snow Monkeys” “takes a discursive approach to the documentary format, frequently taking time out from its human subjects to note the shocking details in Afghanistan, such as the drone bombers that routinely pass overhead.”

  • Motley's Law (2015)

    Shot between 2013 and 2014, “Motley’s Law” focused on Kimberly Motley, the first and only Western lawyer to handle cases in Afghan courts, and the only woman to serve in that capacity. Danish director Nicole Nielsen Horanyi helmed the documentary and Variety’s review credited her with finding a true character “who mixes sangfroid, along with an appealing straightforward way of speaking.”

  • What Tomorrow Brings (POV, 2016)

    This “POV” documentary goes inside the first girls’ school in a small Afghan village, tracing its 2009 beginnings at a time when international forces were pulling out and the Taliban was gaining power. The documentary chronicles the development of the school through the graduation of its first class in 2015. Directed by Beth Murphy, the film shows how interconnected generations of women are in the community. “What Tomorrow Brings” was nominated for a current affairs Emmy.

  • Angels Are Made of Light (2018)

    A two-time Oscar nominee for documentaries set in Iraq, director James Longley turned his attention on Afghanistan for this film about students and teachers weathering political turbulence. Variety praised the documentary, which debuted at Telluride, as stirring and gorgeous. The critic lauded the director for offering “a multitude of despairing perspectives on this war-torn milieu, where poverty and war are constant impediments to happiness and progress.”

  • Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl) (2019)

    Carol Dysinger, who previously directed “Camp Victory, Afghanistan,” directed this Oscar winning short, which debuted at Tribeca. The country is “one of the worst places in the world to be born a girl,” the film begins, but shines an optimistic light on a program called Skateistan focuses on improving literacy among disadvantaged young women in Kabul. In this country, Variety noted following its Oscar nomination, simply coming to school requires female bravery. “The doc’s positive, solutions-oriented approach is refreshing,” it goes on to say.

  • Leaving Afghanistan (Frontline, 2021)

    PBS’ “Frontline” has been producing documentaries about the U.S. war in Afghanistan from the beginning and in July aired its latest, appropriately called “Leaving Afghanistan.” In the 25-minute documentary, Najibullah Quraishi outlines the consequences of the U.S. withdrawal from the country, including renewed power for the Taliban and greater power for neighboring countries such as Iran.

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