Wolf and Sheep

Based on the life (diary entries) of her close friend and collaborator Anwar Hashimi, Wolf and Sheep, the directorial debut of Shahrbanoo Sadat, is a slice of life set within a remote shepherd community in central Afghanistan. With little to no conventional plot, it feels closer to a documentary. The audience and perhaps even the director herself, are mere observers; they are there silently watching the seemingly mundane lives of shepherd children day after day, as seen by the bushes on the slope or the mountains. It gives a rare peek into rural Afghan life, capturing a fragile world tucked away from the geopolitical conflicts that would soon engulf it.\ \ The idea of watching a bunch of kids herding sheep day in and day out for 1:30 hours may seem boring, mundane, or monotonous. But it is far from it. What they actually do while the sheep graze, how they play, what they eat, and what they talk about gradually become fascinating. For them as for their parents and grandparents, there is no difference between folklore, fantasy, and reality; everything is real. Mythical stories are interwoven into their lives and are as real as their daily hardships. Perhaps they know the difference but choose to believe otherwise, for those stories provide the much-needed color to their drab lives. Or perhaps they really are true, but we are so far away and cut off from their world that we think of them as fantasy. \ \ The film ends abruptly when the villagers have to vacate their homes in a hurry, gather their livestock and whatever else they can, and flee because “the soldiers are coming”. \ \ Watching them leave, almost running on the slope with their sheep, I couldn’t help but think that the title “Wolf and Sheep” actually refers not to the animals, but to these people and the approaching Soviet soldiers.