Nadia Nadim was 8 years old when her father was murdered by the Taliban – shot in the back of the head. At least that’s what her mother Hamida was told, says Nadia Nadim at the beginning of the documentary “Nadia”, for which she had the camera accompany her for a year and a half. In this first scene, she looks back calmly and composedly into her own story, realizing more than she tells. The camera is close to her, showing her in a sterile room, bathed in a strange bluish light by the last rays of daylight.
Then a hard cut: driving violin music accompanies scenes by Nadia Nadim at games for the French football club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), repeatedly interrupted with sometimes disturbing archive material from Afghanistan of crying children, women who were beaten and cities destroyed. Within just five minutes, the main lines of this haunting documentary are drawn: it’s about war, flight, and football.
A versatile protagonist
“I just tried to be as honest with Nadia as possible,” director Anissa Bonnefont told DW, “and Nadia combines all of these complex issues in her person.” When Anissa Bonnefont met her young protagonist for the first time in 2019, the women hit it off right away. This closeness can be felt throughout the documentary. Nadia Nadim allows Anissa Bonnefont and thus the viewers to get very close to herself and her story. Nadia always remains dignified, the camera’s view is never voyeuristic.
We get to know her family and above all Nadia’s courageous mother Hamida during the almost 85-minute documentary: After the death of her father, Hamida was on her own with her five daughters. As a single woman, she basically had no chance during the first Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001. Afghanistan experienced a reign of terror during this time. Women had to wear the all-covering burqa, were not allowed to leave the house without their husbands, nor were they allowed to work or accept an inheritance. Miraculously, the family manages to escape in 2000. First to Pakistan and from there to Europe.
A strong team: Nadia with her mother Hamida
The six women and girls finally made their way to Denmark via detours. There Nadia discovered football for herself. A stroke of luck – Nadia loves sports, her talent does not remain undiscovered for long. As a young woman, she played for the Danish national team and Manchester City, among others. During the shooting she played at Paris Saint-Germain and even became French champion with her team in 2021. In addition to her football career, she even completes a medical degree.
Is there a return to Afghanistan?
And yet Nadia also has “this side of a sad clown,” says director Bonnefont. “She has a real scar, a real tear.” She never came to terms with her father’s death. Her great wish is to return to Afghanistan to find his war medals, which the former Afghan general guarded like a treasure. To hide her from the Taliban, Nadia’s mother asked her relatives who remained in Afghanistan to bury her.
With this story, the film gains another dimension: just as the Taliban are regaining power with the withdrawal of troops from the USA and other NATO countries, Nadia plans to travel to the country of her birth. Whether she succeeds is not to be revealed at this point.
“We started work on this project in September 2019, and by the time the film was shown in France in October 2021, the situation in Afghanistan had deteriorated more and more dramatically,” says film producer Myriam Weil, looking back. “What we thought was archival footage when we began editing – namely, the women being flogged – had gone from archival to current footage.”
The dramatic situation in the country is discussed in talks that Nadia has with a surgeon stationed in Afghanistan, Najeehbullah Bina, and David Martinon, the French ambassador in Kabul. However, the film does not become political or slide into moral phrases. Nevertheless, both the protagonist and the makers strive for more with their film.
A film with a message
The production companies “federation entertainment” and “eco studio” have organized, among other things, special screenings for the film to collect donations for refugees. In one of these campaigns, around 20,000 euros came for the Association “Singa” together that brings refugees together with people who want to take them into their own homes.
“We want to change the way refugees are viewed,” says Myriam Weil. This is particularly important now that more people are being forced to flee due to war, crises and global warming.
Even before the documentary film, Nadia Nadim was very socially committed: Among other things, she is a special representative for UNESCO, committed to “Doctors Without Borders” and the NGO “From Street to School”, which promotes the education of girls. Last year she moved from PSG to Racing Louisville, USA. She wants to pursue her professional career there for two more years. Afterwards she would like to establish herself as a doctor specializing in reconstructive surgery.
“My life was already so crazy. I’ve experienced so much,” says Nadia at the end of the film. “It feels like seven or eight lives and I’m only 33!” She wishes her life to stay intense, but maybe with a little break here and there.
Finally we meet Nadia again in the sterile room from the beginning. The sun has now completely set, you can only see dimly. What sticks with you for a long time afterwards is her contagious laughter.
The documentary will be screened on Sunday, May 15, 2022 as part of the Football Film Festival 11mm to be seen in the Babylon cinema in Berlin.