Engineer Latif (Field Research Edit)
Director: Mariam Ghani, Eng. Latif Ahmadi, Daoud Farani, Malek Kayoumov; Cinematographer: Eng. Latif Ahmadi, Adam Hogan
Duration: 00:21:00; Aspect Ratio: 1.778:1; Hue: 96.479; Saturation: 0.055; Lightness: 0.158; Volume: 0.153; Cuts per Minute: 3.761; Words per Minute: 102.398
Summary: Edited interview with Afghan film director Engineer Latif Ahmadi, intercut with archival material from two films on which he worked. He was cinematographer for
Inqilab-e Sawr (The April Revolution), a reenactment of the 1978 Afghan Communist coup d'état shot just three months after the actual events, and details here some of his interactions with deputy party leader Hafizullah Amin, who conceived of and starred in the film. He also tells how footage featuring Amin disappeared when sent to Uzbekistan for color processing, with some scenes resurfacing in 1980 in the documentary
Afghanistan: The Revolution Continues by Malek Kayoumov; those scenes are intercut here. This edit also covers Latif's work as director of the film
Green Field, a docu-fiction-propaganda film about the benefits of mechanized agriculture (with a love story), and the trouble he got into with KhAD and the KGB while shooting it. Interview conducted in the Afghan Films screening room in July 2017 by Ali M. Latifi and Mariam Ghani.
Edit and Russian subs created for the
Field Research project at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art. Provided as H.264 Quicktime, AAC audio export from Resolve. Footage sources: DnXHD 1080 transcode of Canon 4K (interview), telecine to HD file (Kayoumov clips), telecine to DVCAM tape (Green Field clips)

Yes. It’s very interesting, whoever wrote the screenplay,
based it on the thoughts and views of Hafizullah Amin

1978 coup d'état, Sawr Revolution, April Revolution, Afghan Communist coup, Malek Kayoumov, Daoud Farani
Clip from Malek Kayoumov's documentary Afghanistan: The Revolution Continues, featuring footage from Daoud Farani's Inqilab-e Sawr (The April Revolution). This may or may not be a reenactment, as in much of the other footage from Farani's unfinished film, but the title claims it was filmed on April 27th, the day after the coup.
Kabul

*Text on screen*: April 27, 1978. Kabul

When we went to the Presidential Palace, Hafizullah Amin
was so brave, always smiling, friendly and kind

Because he was so in love with this film, he said whatever we wanted
was at our disposal, so long as we could make a film that felt alive

We said if you really want a film that feels alive, then you must
act in the film yourself - you have to act out your vision for us.

He said "Certainly."

We requested for him to re-enact the night before the revolution,
the night when you’re caught, can you act that out for us?

He said "Of course, why not?"

He said his wife and children were at home and he was asleep with his wife beside him

We said to have his wife lie next to him, then

He said in a very friendly way, look, we’re Afghan, what if people
talk about me and say that we saw his wife lying next to him?

"It's better if I sleep, and my wife sits by the bed."

And his daughter was sitting there like a Kochi girl,
just munching on her bread.

That's how we shot the scene where his wife is shaking him
awake to tell him that things have gone bad

and he tells her that they will take him no matter what.

We shot it like a documentary based on
Amin’s own recollections of that time,

when he snuck out and hid, when his wife received the reports,
when they delivered messages to different people,

all of this, we shot with him, just like a documentary.

Clip from Malek Kayoumov's documentary Afghanistan: The Revolution Continues, featuring footage from Daoud Farani's Inqilab-e Sawr (The April Revolution). As in much of the other footage from Farani's unfinished film, we are watching a re-enactment of (more or less) real events, in this case the famous house arrest of Hafizullah Amin on April 26th, 1978, which precipitated his order to begin the Afghan Communist coup d'état (Sawr Revolution). The Russian voiceover was written after the Soviets had invaded Afghanistan and assassinated Amin in late 1979, and is consistent with the general disavowal of Amin and projects associated with him (like Farani's film) after 1979.
Hafizullah Amin, reenactment, Sawr Revolution, Afghan Communists, 1978 coup d'état
Kabul

This is Amin's apartment being searched.

By the way, these are his real wife

and kids being filmed with him.

while he's passing on some banned books to his wife, so to speak.

Here, look at how policemen are politely shaking the hand of a man wanted by the state.

There. You can see Amin trying to destroy some document, and look how

the policeman is shyly taking it away from him. Very timidly.

So there. Amin is being led to the prison. He’s giving his wife some money to get by, so to speak

Although I must say that he did not actually stay in prison before the coup - again, very realistic.

And now you’ll see a few spectacular takes. The thing is that Amin is giving orders to storm the president’s palace here.

But one wonders, if he’s in prison, how did they bring the army line there? Or if he’s not in prison, how did he get out?

But he’s not happy with something—here is another take, and another one,

There were twenty takes, or more.

When the Uzbek filmmaker Malek Kayumov stole the footage for his own documentary,

no one believed that it was actually Hafizullah Amin

Dozens of times in festivals and gatherings,
people asked how we made someone look like Amin

and I would say, it was Amin himself who played that role

No one would believe it, they said what president would act in a film?

I said whether you believe it or not,
when we shot it, it was the president himself.

He stood on top of a tank in one scene

This depicts when he rode a tank out of the Arg
to free his comrades from jail

They had all been arrested by Daoud Khan
and he goes and frees them, it was very brave

But something happened on the film shoot

The light that we had used to light him

That halogen light exploded just as Amin arrived.

Clip from Malek Kayoumov's documentary Afghanistan: The Revolution Continues, featuring footage from Daoud Farani's Inqilab-e Sawr (The April Revolution). As in much of the other footage from Farani's unfinished film, we are watching a re-enactment of (more or less) real events, in this case the famous house arrest of Hafizullah Amin on April 26th, 1978, which precipitated his order to begin the Afghan Communist coup d'état (Sawr Revolution). The Russian voiceover was written after the Soviets had invaded Afghanistan and assassinated Amin in late 1979, and is consistent with the general disavowal of Amin and projects associated with him (like Farani's film) after 1979.

Hafizullah Amin, reenactment, Sawr Revolution, Afghan Communists, 1978 coup d'état
Kabul

He always used to joke with us that you made me into a movie star

We would laugh, what can we do? You kept saying
movie star and in the end we made you one.

Since I was the cameraman, I would always go up

to his face and check the exposure and light.

One time he stopped me and said "Come over here."

So I did.

And he said "I know this is a camera, and that is a light,"

"and that's a tripod and those reflectors bring more light"

"but what is this thing that looks like a bomb,
that you bring up to my face?"

"Before you start to shoot, explain to me
what this is, then you can carry on filming."

So I told him that it was an exposure meter

and without it I can’t tell if there is enough light near
his face for everything to be exposed properly.

After that he said he understood
and he let me get back to work.

That was the day that a halogen light burst.

It burst and one piece of it kept circling in the air
until it landed right on Amin’s chest

It burned his clothes

and before we even stopped filming

I swear that 50 Kalashnikovs pointed directly at us

ready to take us all out.

Amin laughed and told them to calm down

He said "Have you gone mad, are you going to kill all these people?"

The commander of those troops, Jandad Khan,
was very famous and widely feared.

There was literally two or three seconds left before they shot all of us.

Luckily Amin himself said "It was a technical matter"

"The light burst, and it just so happened that it landed on me."

"It could have landed on anyone here."

Then we let out a breath of relief knowing we would survive.

But every scene we shot with Amin,

there were always Kalashnikovs behind us.

All of them had their fingers on the trigger

to fire at us at even the smallest mistake

Clip from Malek Kayoumov's 1980 documentary Afghanistan: The Revolution Continues. This may or may not be footage from Daoud Farani's unfinished 1978 film Inqilab-e Sawr (The April Revolution), and it may or may not be a reenactment - but at least some of it has a distinctly staged feel. Jandad Khan, of course, features in the story we have just heard from Eng. Latif, as the head of Amin's personal guard. The Russian voiceover was written after the Soviets had invaded Afghanistan and assassinated Amin in late 1979, and is consistent with the general disavowal of Amin and projects associated with him (like Farani's film) after 1979.
Hafizullah Amin, Jandad Khan, Noor Mohammad Taraki, Afghan Communists, Malek Kayoumov
Kabul

Moving the chair for him is the head of the president’s palace guards Jandad Khan. He headed the guards for Taraki, and he headed them when he organised Taraki’s assassination.

Now we can see the actual assassins: Ekbol and Abdul Udud. The third one—Ruzi—has escaped.

The assassins are telling the inspector how they suffocated Taraki with a pillow.

He is being questioned. Now we can see the actual assassins: Ekbol and Abdul Udud. The third one—Ruzi—has escaped.

They are telling him that Taraki asked them to pass his watch and ring to his wife, but the wife has never received them.

Amin felt he had won. One wonders what thoughts come to the head of a man who has betrayed and murdered his friends, and trampled on the ideals of the party he belonged to.

He must have hoped to become a hero, but he will be remembered as an usurper and murderer.

AML: Earlier, you told Mariam that you had been jailed
several times by the Parchamis. Is that correct?

Latif: Yes.
Interviewer: Why, for what reason?

The Soviet forces had just arrived in Afghanistan

And the Agricultural Development Bank asked me
to make a film about Afghan agricultural practices

Clip from the opening sequence of Eng. Latif's 1981 film
Green Field

I asked what the film should be about

They explained what the central premise should be

and I wrote them a script about

traditional and mechanized agriculture.

When I submitted the script to the bank’s board

which was made up of PhDs and Masters degree holders from India,

they really liked the concept of the film.

They asked for the film to be shot in color,
no matter what it would cost

So I signed a contract with them

but it stipulated that they could also offer the project to Afghan FIlms.

But at that time, Afghan Film could not give an answer to their requests

Afghan Film said the film would take six months to a year

But the Bank said they needed the film quickly

"We can’t wait that long."

Eventually, they sent a request to me at Ariana Film

and I accepted and told them it could be done in two months.

Kodak color negatives were hard to find at the time,
but we managed somehow.

I started production, but as I said, the
Soviet army had just arrived in Afghanistan

This led to a conflict between me and Afghan Film.

When I shot the film, with documentary footage of agriculture

The director of the bank went to the Prime Minister

and asked that I be given a passport
to go to India to process the film

The Vice President, Mr Sarbeland, was there

and because he was also the Minister of Culture

this upset him.

He asked, "Who is it that made this film?"

They said: "A young man who runs a private
production company called Ariana Film."

He didn’t believe that one man with very little behind him

could do what 160 people at Afghan Film could not

with all of their capabilities and skills -

so he thought something had to be up.

At the time, filmmaker Khalek Halil was head of Afghan Film.
He called the head of Afghan Film, Mr Halil,
and when Halil came to the office,

he said "How could this young man make this film,"

"but you with everything at your disposal in Afghan Film could not?"

When Halil came under question,
he started to make up ridiculous things

Oddly enough, Halil did not mention anything about this when we interviewed him.

Eventually, he lied to the Minister of Culture,

saying this is not a film,

it’s just footage of Soviet forces in Afghanistan

that he will take to India and hand over to the BBC

before he leaves the country.

That minister was known to react emotionally, without
thinking whether what he was told was really true

So he quickly decided I had no right to go to India.

I said okay, I won’t go

He said you can go to Russia with Wali Latifi
and he will be your guarantor
Filmmaker Wali Latifi, also interviewed for this project. Best known for the film Rozhai Dashtwar, which shares some qualities with a spaghetti Western, and for his documentaries. The actual documentary footage of the day of the 1978 coup used by Kayoumov was shot by Latifi.

He will take you to process and develop your film
in the laboratory of MosFilm in Moscow

The negatives will be examined,
and then you will return to Afghanistan.

Otherwise, he threatened to have me arrested

And said until my work was done, I would be under surveillance.

I said okay, and with a lot of courage, I turned to him and said:

"Minister, I am a young man, I have hopes, I have interests,
and I accepted this challenge knowing I could do it."

"The film is not about the Russians, it’s not about the Red Army."

"This film is about nothing but agriculture, and when
I come back you will be able to see it for yourself."

He said "No, a government worker would never lie,
so you did go out and do this."

I said: "Okay, since you all carried out the revolution,"

"You are now revolutionaries, we are the subordinates,"

"Whatever you say, we must accept.”

He told me until the film was processed and returned to Kabul,
I would have to pay for all the expenses incurred in Moscow.

I was under surveillance at home for several days,

until I got a visa, passport and a ticket.

So for a few weeks I was basically under house arrest,

watched and confined to a corner of my house.

The morning of the trip, after everything had been sorted,
Wali Latifi came with a car

Wali Latifi didn't say anything about this trip in his interview either.

and flew with me to Moscow.

When we arrived, a special car came to take us to a hotel.

Then at MosFilm we were able to process the film
as required, after which we took it back.

Once we retrieved the film, Wali Latifi immediately
called the Ministry from Moscow

and said that we had seen the film along with a Russian unit

We didn’t see one Russian soldier -
the Soviet forces have no role in this at all.

The entire film is about agriculture.

The film really is about mechanized vs. traditional agriculture, but of course there's also a love story.

They said, OK, come back.

When I came back I worked with [Siddiq] Barmak

on the editing and title sequences to finish the film.

Title sequence from Green Field, done entirely with seeds and grains - one of the more creative title sequences of the era.

I took the finished film back to Russia to print several copies

and then came back to Kabul.

When I arrived in Kabul,

the Minister of Culture, Sarbeland, called me

in to see him, but I wouldn't go.

I told him I have my own pride, I already told you I did
my work and until you find a single Russian soldier in my film,

leave me alone.

But since Mr Shadan, the head of
Radio Television Afghanistan, was a close friend,

he was sent to the house to come talk to me.

He said: "Brother, there’s a revolution, what are you trying to fight?"

"This country currently belongs to them, it doesn’t matter what we want."

"They will take you and throw you in a corner in the jail."

"You know how it is now, no one asks anything,
the courts are vigilante courts."

"No one is going to take you to a court to stand in front of a judge. "

"They will jail you, and once they finish punishing and torturing you,"

"then if they feel like it, they’ll let you go … "

"Come, let’s just go."

I thought about it and my family was already
putting a lot of pressure on me to go.

So I went to the Ministry and when I got to the office door,

I wouldn’t sit down at first,

until Shadan told me to sit and I sat there angrily.

The minister raised his glasses, looked at me, and smiled

When he smiled, I realized he understand his mistake

He said, "It’s okay, now we say, if the elder slips, the youth forgives."

"Please forgive me, in my life I’ve made very few mistakes."

"But I’ve never made such a big mistake as this."

He said, "This must be corrected, so from this moment on,
you are the director of Afghan Film."

Another thing Halil didn't tell us: how he was removed from the directorship of Afghan Films. This story may of course be exaggerated.

"Don’t go home, the car will come and take you directly
to the directorate." He then called his secretary over

to draft a letter telling Halil, then director
of Afghan Film, not to come back.

He gave me one document, another went to Afghan Film

The wedding procession finale of Green Field

and I became the director of Afghan Film
from that moment on.
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