Preview Screening: Tell Spring Not to Come This Year + Q&A

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with directors Saeed Taji Farouky and Michael McEvoy.

When NATO troops withdrew from Afghanistan the Afghan National Army (ANA) took control of Helmand Province, an extremely dangerous region where attacks by Taliban fighters are the order of the day.

The directors of Tell Spring Not to Come This Year accompanied an ANA company during a year of frontline duty in Helmand. The soldiers are paid irregularly, there are not enough supplies and their equipment is substandard. Saeed Taji Farouky’s cinemascope images lend an epic dimension to the soldiers’ daily lives. The private moments and bloody battles feel like a metaphor for the fate of this war-torn country.

In off-screen interviews, the protagonists talk about their doubts, their hopes and their dreams. At the same time the film shows the absurdity of the conflict from the point of view of these Afghan soldiers, in a country whose government is fighting an enemy that even NATO troops did not succeed in defeating in almost thirteen years.

Tell Spring Not to Come This Year received its world premiere at the Berlinale in February 2015 and was awarded the Amnesty International Human Rights award and the Audience Award for best documentary.

Directed by Michael McEvoy and Saeed Taji Farouky
Duration: 87′
Year: 2015