Hollywoodgate

For a year after 31 August 2021, the last day of the US occupation of Afghanistan, Egyptian filmmaker Ibrahim Nash’at was given permission to film inside a deserted US military base. It soon becomes clear that $7 billion of abandoned armaments allowed the Taliban to transform itself into a significant fighting force. Over the course of the year, the film follows ambitious Talib lieutenant Mukhtar and Malawi Mansour, the head of Afghanistan’s Taliban-controlled air force. The two grudgingly accepted the filmmaker’s presence and as time passed his camera revealed a dearth of humanity in the Taliban’s worldview. Hollywoodgate is a chilling portrait of the Taliban’s return to power and a startling insight into this regime’s worldview.