Afghan Film The Orphanage by director Shahrbanoo Sadat will screen at the 7th Palestine Cinema Days (October 20 – 26). Palestine Cinema Days is an annual film event, organized by FilmLab Palestine that aims to take the Palestinian filmmaking industry to the international level and promote local and international films to revive cinema culture in Palestine.

In the late 1980s, 15-year-old Qodrat lives in the streets of Kabul and sells cinema tickets on the black market. He is a big Bollywood fan and he daydreams himself into some of his favorite movie scenes. One day the Police brings him to the Soviet orphanage. But in Kabul the political situation is changing. Qodrat and all the children want to defend their home.

Taking part in a number of international film festivals, including Munich International Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival and Asia Pacific Screen Awards, the film also received the Golden Puffin: Best Film from Reykjavík International Film Festival.

Written and directed by Shahrbanoo Sadat, The Orphanage is inspired by the diaries of Anwar Hashimi, who stars in it alongside Qodratollah Qadiri, Sediqa Rasuli, Masihullah Feraji and Hasibullah Rasooli. The film is produced by Katja Adomeit and distributed in the Arab world by MAD Solutions.

Shahrbanoo Sadat is an Afghan, female writer and director, based in Kabul. She studied at Atelier Varan Kabul. Her first feature film Wolf and Sheep was developed with the Cannes Cinéfondation Residence in 2010, Shahr - 20 years old at the time - the youngest ever selected. The film also won the main award at Directors’ Fortnight 2016. Her second feature film The Orphanage is also after Wolf and Sheep the second part of a planned pentalogy, five films based on an unpublished autobiography. The film was presented at Directors’ Fortnight in 2019.