AustLit

The Journey is a ninety-minute telemovie that tells the story group of Afghan asylum seekers attempting to enter Australia by boat.The film aims to educate and inform audiences in source countries about the futility of investing in people smugglers, the perils of the trip, and the hard line policies that await them if they do reach Australian waters. Produced on a budget of almost six million dollars, The Journey was shot on location in three countries and comprised a production crew and cast from thirteen different nations. No English language version has been planned. It is currently available in a number of Middle Eastern languages, notably Dari, Pashto, Urdu, Arabic and Farsi.

Set against the backdrop of a Presidential election, Innocent Heart is six-part drama series that tells of Kabir, a 12-year-old boy who returns home only to fall in with the Taleban. Manipulated by the insurgents into planting an Improvised explosive device (IED), his life begins to unravel after the bomb kills three people, including his best friend and his brother-in-law. The lessons he learns are that violence doesn’t pay and that democracy is the best way forward. The storyline also reinforces why better infrastructure, education, peaceful transition and democratic principles strengthen community capacity and offer a better future.

'On an impulse, Trudi-Ann Tierney, Sydney producer and former actress, goes to Kabul to manage a bar. She quickly falls into the local TV industry, where she becomes responsible for producing a highly popular soapie.

'Trudi's staff are hugely inexperienced. They include Habib, the Pashto poet who wants to insert allegorical scenes involving fighting ants into the scripts; Rashid, the Dari manager, who spends all day surreptitiously watching uncensored Hindi music videos; and the Pakistani actresses who cross the border to Jalalabad ('Jallywood') to perform roles that no Afghan actresses can take on without bringing shame to their families.

'Trudi lives among the expat community - the media, the burnt-out army types now working as security contractors, the 'Do-Gooders', the diplomats - in dubious guest houses like The Dirty Diana. This is 'Ka-bubble', where the reckless encounters with each other, with alcohol and of course with recreational drugs are as dangerous as the city's streets.

'Here are crazy people living crazy lives, and locals trying to survive as best they can against the backdrop of war.' (Publication abstract)

Poking fun at politicians is a fairly standard form of television comedy, but satirising the government in Afghanistan, one of the most corrupt governments in the world, raises some very serious issues.

Inspired by The Office, Ricky Gervais's hit mock-documentary series, The Ministry focuses on the imaginary Ministry of Garbage in the fictitious country of Hechland. Featuring an incompetent Minister, a man-hating Secretary and an assortment of advisors and cronies, it reveals a dysfunctional government department with no accountability and a misguided, self-serving sense of morality. It provides the people of Afganistan the opportunity to laugh while addressing serious political and social issues like the buying of Parliamentary votes, corruption, nepotism, politicians colluding with major criminals, and sexism.

[Source: Put it Out There Pictures]

With a focus on promoting faith and trust in the Afghan Security Forces, this thirteen-part drama series centres on an elite police unit tasked with combating major crime and corruption at all levels of society. Eagle Four is fast-paced, contemporary and addresses some of the most significant security issues facing Afghanistan. The fact that the team perform their duties with integrity, honesty and strict adherence to the rule of law, challenges universally held notions of the Afghan Police while reinforcing the on-going professionalisation of the security forces.

[Source: Put it Out There Pictures]

Broadcast in Afghan provinces with the greatest prevalence of narcotics-related issues, Salam tells the story of a young man who witnesses his father’s death as a teenager, has his girlfriend promised to another man and subsequently spirals into heroin addiction. Drawn into a terrorist act that costs the life of his sister, Salam flees to a village where a mystical elder sets him on the path to spiritual recovery and restitution.

While the producers' main focus was to create awareness of the damage that narcotics can do to individuals, families and communities, various storylines also examines the democratic election process, the threat to the community posed by insurgent activity and the importance of education, particularly for young women.

[Source: Put it Out There Pictures]