Fourteen-year-old Fawad Mohammadi was spotted on the streets of Afghanistan by an American director and is now off to the glamorous world of Hollywood and red carpet of the Oscars which is entirely different from the reality he knows — the -grimy, terror-filled streets of Kabul.
Mohammadi was selling maps to passing foreigners on Kabul’s famed Chicken Street when he ran into director Sam French. French then decided to cast Mohammadi as one of the main characters in his new film, Buzkashi Boys; the movie has been shot entirely in Afghanistan and is nominated for Best Live Action Short Film at the Academy Awards on February 24.
“The adventure would be a great privilege for me and for all of Afghanistan to meet the world’s most famous superstars,” Mohammadi told AFP. “It’s truly such a great feeling to go to the Oscars. I had never thought about it. I still don’t believe it.”
The film is about two young boys growing up in Kabul who dream of becoming Buzkashi horseback riders in Afghanistan’s dramatic national sport, which uses a headless goat in place of a ball in a wild version of polo.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 20th, 2013.
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