Chopped Feet Propaganda for Black Tulip?

Last week I wrote about an Afghan actress whose legs were cut off, turns out: supposedly.

New York Times ran a correction and also reported from the Kabul-premiere of the film. The director’s claims of the actress-incident haven’t been confirmed and the head of the Afghan Film Organization says it was “just propaganda for the film”. (Cost of War sums it up nicely.)

Although the legs-chopped-off-story sounds unbelievable, worse things happen in that country, therefore it could be believable. But now the question is, is Sonia Nassery Cole  so driven by her will-not-take-no-for-an-answer-attitude, that she’s willing to say anything to get her way?  Which is not cool. It makes the all-too-real-suffering of Afghans cheap.

Our Western right-is-right-and-wrong-is-wrong -morals don’t translate to a lot of places where  the end justifies the means. Our worldviews are different. In the east it is a problem if you get caught and are shamed for it. Here you are guilty if it is wrong and you know it.

Sometimes our worldview makes us naive when we deal with places such as Afghanistan.

Price for Filming in Afghanistan: Actress Has Legs Cut Off

Passionate people are inspiring people. An Afghan-American lady has managed the nearly impossible and shot a feature film, The Black Tulip, in Afghanistan. She endured death threats, her crew quitting on her, her main actress having her legs cut off by militants and so on.

You have to have conviction, persistence, boldness and a crazy streak to go to such lengths for a film. And I love people like this. Passionate people, who’ll take no for an answer don’t grow on easy street. Sonia Nassery Cole fled Afghanistan and as a young girl wrote to Ronald Reagan and got invited for a dinner at the White House. This is exceptional of course. This woman has passionate determination because she has a cause to fight for. She knows that her countrymen and -women see what she does and chances are, they might get inspired. Without inspiration and hope no one will stand up to change a country.

I haven’t seen the movie and don’t know if it’s any good, but  just the pure determination and passion of this woman inspires me. The impossible is possible, you just need a bit of faith.