Film Review: What We Left Unfinished

What We Left Unfinished is a documentary from Mariam Ghani, and it explores an area of film history that isn’t the most well known, that of Afghan cinema. It specifically takes a look at the industry during Afghanistan’s fairly short-lived communist period from 1978 to 1992, showcasing five films that were commissioned by the government, but were ultimately never completed. And it’s all explored through footage from these uncompleted films, and interviews with the people who were working on these films, directors, cinematographers, actors, etc.

The five films in question are The April Revolution (1978), Downfall (1987), The Black Diamond (1989), Wrong Way (1990), and Agent (1990). Through the footage that is still available, these films are largely unassuming fare, crowd pleasers, thrillers, and action movies, and occasionally silly looking ones at that, due to the obvious budget limitations. Though the restoration is beautiful. However, there is a level of depth that the documentary touches on, particularly in how the filmmakers involved had to balance numerous things while they were making the film. The conditions were far from ideal for any artist.

For one, these were basically full on propaganda films. Films that were meant to show how great Afghan society was under its communist regime. Even then, the filmmakers didn’t want to be intellectually and emotionally dishonest about the society they lived in, they wanted to explore the realities of a lot of people, and try to pull that off within the limitations set by the state. On top of that, you have these filmmakers dealing with constantly shifting powers, several coups, and the presence of the Mujahideen, who do not like what they are doing. There’s even one story told in the documentary about the cast of a film getting into a real fire fight after the shoot.

It’s interesting to see these filmmakers reflect on these moments, and use hindsight to add the kind of context that can make sense of all the wild things they had to deal with. Despite the specificity of this doc’s subject matter, a lot of the focus is ultimately honed in on the idea of art, and how art reflects the world around its creation, and how important it is for artists to be given the space to do their thing, even if it might just piss some bad people off in the process.

What We Left Unfinished is a pretty short documentary, just over an hour long, so there’s not as much to dig into here, but there is still a lot to process with all the stories being told, some being sad, some being funny, some being scary. If I had a quibble, it’s a fairly minor one, I do kinda wish the film provided a bit more context regarding the nature of these shifting powers. Many names are thrown at you, and it’s a little hard to keep up and follow who is on who’s side, and who is fighting who. You get the gist of it as you’re watching it. Still, the film offers a lot of things to learn, all of which was definitely new to me, and I would assume for many of you out there as well. It’s a good doc that doesn’t demand too much of your time, and for film aficionados, this offers some great insight that is worth absorbing.

What We Left Unfinished will open in select theaters and virtual cinemas on August 6th.