In Her Hands

By adopting a woman’s angle, Marcel Mettelsiefen and Tamina Ayazi’s documentary finds a fresh approach to recording recent events in Afghanistan.

With In Her Hands the Clintons (Hillary and Chelsea) follow the example of the Obamas by involving themselves in film production: they are credited as executive producers on this first feature from HiddenLight productions. In selecting In Her Hands as their starter, they are undoubtedly sincere in their choice of material and on paper it is a film that fills a gap. That is the case despite this being the third film that I have seen recently about life in Afghanistan in modern times. The excellent British feature My Childhood, My Country: 20 Years in Afghanistan portrayed what it has meant to grow up there in the 21st century and it was followed by Matthew Heineman’s Retrograde, an American take on the fight against the Taliban seen from the viewpoint of the soldiers involved. The fresh aspect offered by In Her Hands, a film co-directed by a German, Marcel Mettelsiefen, and by Tamana Ayazi, an Afghan who is also a journalist, is to put at its centre Zarifa Ghafari who, on being appointed the mayor of Maidan Shahr in 2018, could claim to be the youngest woman ever to attain such a post in Afghanistan. Since the restrictions on women's freedom are so significant a feature in that country, to have a film looking at life through her eyes could well be valuable.

One key factor that links these three feature films is the opportunity to go beyond news headlines by presenting an intimate portrait of the lives of the individuals featured. Unfortunately, the approach adopted for this Netflix release keeps one at a distance. Usually when a film is made in a language other than English what we see here is either subtitled (which helps to capture the authentic atmosphere) or dubbed (there are still audiences put off by having to read subtitles). Whether or not it was always planned that way, what we are given on Netflix is the worst of both worlds: that is to say that the original language is kept, but with a louder dubbed voice-over speaking the words in English and with English subtitles present too.

Some viewers may more readily adapt to that than I do, but either way what is on the screen seems seriously. misjudged for a work that should be inviting us into the lives of the people on screen. Being a mayor, Zarifa is seen at one point visiting injured children in a hospital following an explosion at a school. But, that apart, we see hardly anything of her work as mayor. She has a driver, Massoum, who declares that he is happy to serve a woman, but, while one letter threatening to assassinate her is quoted, there is little information about how readily she attained her position and no details of the severe struggles that followed her appointment and delayed the start of her term as mayor. We are told that her father, who served in the Afghan military for 37 years, was opposed when she declared that she wanted to go to university. However, there is a lack of real detail over their relationship even if her grief is touched on when he was killed by the Taliban for which she wonders if her own activities were partly to blame.

That same deficiency in the film is apparent in other areas too. We do see members of Zarifa’s family but often very briefly with limited portrayals of them and, indeed, her own daughter is glimpsed early on and then hardly features. We do see more of her partner, Bashir, first introduced as her fiancé, but even here the portrait is somewhat sketchy. Interestingly, In Her Hands does seem to show some sympathetic understanding for Afghans whose plight is such that they can be won over to supporting the Taliban. This becomes apparent through one particular example featured late on in the film, but again the material calls out to be handled in greater depth. So does the subsequent footage about Zafira settling in Germany after the Taliban takeover but also returning to Afghanistan to help women there. The filmmakers never obtrude by asking questions of their subjects but that often feels to be needed if we are to see these people in a way that goes beyond the relatively superficial to allow us to share what lies beneath the surface and thus to empathise fully.

Some critics have complained about the inclusion of footage in Taliban territory in which we witness a Taliban commander, Musafer, declaring his views. This seems a misjudged criticism since the sequences take up relatively little of the film. Admittedly, there is nothing here that we don't know already, but to allow Musafer to condemn himself out of his own mouth is no bad thing. The film’s weakness lies not in this but in its failure to give the kind of detailed intimate portrait of Zafira Ghafari that would make the viewer feel close to her. Without that the film for all its good intentions represents a lost opportunity.

MANSEL STIMPSON

Featuring  Zarifa Gharafi.

Dir Marcel Mettelsiefen and Tamina Ayazi, Pro Juan Camilo Cruz and Jonathan Schaerf, Ph Marcel Mettelsiefen, Ed Stephen Ellis, Philipp Gromov and Ines Boffi, Music Michael Kadelbach.

Propagate Content/HiddenLight Productions/Moondogs-Netflix.
93 mins. USA. 2022. US Rel: 9 November 2022. UK Rel: 16 November 2022. Cert. 15.