Nothingwood

Warm, flamboyant characters that any screenwriter would be proud to have invented are the fascinating raw material of NOTHINGWOOD, an entertaining documentary about director Salim Shaheen, who has managed to make and self-distribute 110 movies in war-torn Afghanistan. He can’t read or write but he acts and directs by the seat of his pants and gets mobbed in the streets wherever he goes, directing Bollywood-stlye films with singing and dancing. NOTHINGWOOD covers roughly a week during which Shaheen and company flew from Kabul to Bamiyan to shoot scenes for his latest production. In one scene Shaheen asks Sonia if it will pose a problem for her film if he sacrifices a live chicken to get its blood to smear on actors instead of using make-up. (“The chicken died a martyr for our film.”) Making movies is a way to get away from the reality of on-going war. As for Sonia, once she’s incorporated into the adventure, the normal precautions a foreigner takes in Afghanistan fly out the window. (Lisa Nesselson)

In the presence of Sonia Kronlund.