‘Afghan Spielberg’ Shaheen goes down a storm at Cannes

Afghan director Salim Shaheen

CANNES: In the hierarchy of world cinema, Hollywood is at the top. Then comes Bollywood and Nigeria’s Nollywood. And then “way, way below comes us,” says Salim Shaheen, a chubby Afghan actor who is his country’s one-man film industry. “We are Nothingwood.”
Shaheen, who is 51 or 53 — he is not quite sure himself — is the stand-out revelation of this year’s Cannes film festival.
A gonzo director who has made 111 — not always good — films on a shoestring, he and his endearingly eccentric band of actors are the stars of the festival’s hit documentary.
“Nothingwood” is a hilarious, touching tribute to Shaheen, who The Hollywood Reporter reckons may be the most prolific filmmaker “in the entire world” and to his almost suicidal urge to perform.
“I would die for cinema,” Shaheen, who has been called the Afghan Steven Spielberg, told AFP.
And he is not kidding. He survived a rocket attack on his studio in 1995 in which nine of his actors and crew died, and he and his recklessly brave companions regularly dodge minefields and the Taliban to make their action films and melodramas.
“I am stronger than death,” he said. “We Afghans don’t worry about death. It will come, we just don’t know when.”
To say that Cannes has taken Shaheen and his merry men to their hearts is an understatement, with rave reviews and journalists queueing for hours to talk to him — although this may have also something to do with Afghan time-keeping.
A cross between Gerard Depardieu and Steven Seagal, “with his craft clearly inspired by the latter,” Shaheen is revelling in the Cannes circus.
“I cried tears of joy when I found out I was going to Cannes,” he told AFP.