The Acclaimed and Controversial FireDancer Also to Screen at Tribeca Film Festival
NEW YORK - FireDancer, the first Afghanistan candidate for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, also will be invited to the 2nd Annual Tribeca Film Festival in New York City from May 6 - 11.
We are honored to present the first Afghan film in history to be considered by the Academy for an Oscar nomination and to be selected for the Tribeca Film Festival," said John G. Roche, FireDancer producer and President of New York-based Petunia Productions. "FireDancer resonates with the challenge to both preserve and assimilate faced by all immigrants, each of whom must settle in his or her own way."
Filmed in Afghanistan, New York City, and Washington D.C. with an all-Afghan cast, FireDancer was written and directed by the late Jawed Wassel, who was murdered by producer Nathan Chandler Powell in October 2001.
"Jawed Wassel was an Afghan patriot and American citizen and an artist devoted to both of his countries. His Afghan American colleagues are dedicated to help preserve his work and make it known," added Vida Zaher-Khadem, FireDancer's associate director.
FireDancer held its world premiere in September 2002 in Kabul, Afghanistan, where it was shown at a free public screening in the Ghazi Stadium, site of the infamous Taliban executions. Vida Zaher-Khadem and John G. Roche are also completing a companion documentary titled Return to Afghanistan, which features the life and work of the late Wassel, who fled Afghanistan as an adolescent refugee before settling in New York City.
FireDancer is the first independent family drama feature to depict the life of Afghan-Americans. Its hero, Haris, is sent away from Soviet-occupied Afghanistan to New York City where, as an adult, he pursues a career as an avant-garde artist. Troubled in his soul, he turns to the local Afghan community to search for his cultural roots. Among those he meets is Laila, an aspiring fashion designer at odds with her family's traditionalist views. As Haris and Laila travel their individual journeys of discovery, FireDancer provides a candid look at the manners and mores of America's Afghan diaspora. In its course, several generations embrace paradox and compromise as they struggle for self-definition.