The Greek director, Annetta Papathanasiou, traveled to Kabul to meet the actresses who try to combine art and culture with the harsh daily life in this troubled country.
In the film, “Playing With Fire”, Papathanasiou tells the stories of women actors who have the courage to deal with the theater while facing harsh criticism, social disapproval, and even threats for their lives and their family.
After 30 years of war and the fall of the Taliban regime, which had banned almost all arts, the theater in Afghanistan has been reborn.

Ms papathanasiou said that she was impressed when she learned that the country had active theater groups, which even gave the first prize to a young actress. She also said that: ” I wanted to know this actress and other Afghan artists and find out more about the Afghan theater . Upon my arrival to Kabul i found out that the situation for artists was not like I imagined. The Theatre Department at the University of Kabul has 200 boys and only8 girls. Most girls just watched, they didn’t even like to play in front of a male audience.
The young actress who i wanted to meet disappeared and no one knew where she was. A 22-year old actress was murdered in Kabul just because she played in the theater as showed by the news on TV there”.
The film by Anna Papathanasiou is expected to premiere in September (4/9) at Danaos cinema.