Unprecedented and audacious, HOLLYWOODGATE is the riveting result of the year director Ibrahim Nash’at spent with the Taliban in the wake of the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

HOLLYWOODGATE picks up where the rest of the world left off, in the immediate aftermath of the United States’ chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in August of 2021. Days after the last U.S. plane leaves Afghan soil, the Taliban—now in control of the country—enter an American base in Kabul called Hollywood Gate, reputed to have been a secret CIA station. There they find a portion of the over $7 billion in sophisticated American weaponry left in the country: numerous small arms and munitions, jet fighters, Black Hawk helicopters, and other military equipment. Much of it is damaged, but the base is also equipped with many of the parts needed to fix it.

Director Ibrahim Nash’at’s unprecedented and audacious HOLLYWOODGATE bears witness as the new head of Afghanistan’s air force, Mawlawi Mansour—a Taliban whose father was killed by the Americans—orders his soldiers to inventory everything and repair all they can. The men go to work restoring the weaponry and training themselves to use it. Among them is Mukhtar—a former Taliban fighter now aiming to build a high-ranking military career—who dreams of avenging the war.

HOLLYWOODGATE follows Mawlawi Mansour and Mukhtar over the course of a year as the Taliban transform from a fundamentalist militia into a heavily armed military regime preparing for war beyond Afghanistan’s borders. Nash’at, an Egyptian journalist granted unique but fraught access to Afghanistan, documents what the Taliban will allow him to see, capturing deeply revealing moments that cut to the core of the group’s identity. At a moment in history when propaganda and authoritarianism are on the rise across the globe—and when the Taliban themselves are turning to Hollywood-style propaganda as a means to legitimize themselves—HOLLYWOODGATE offers viewers a chilling and essential portrait of what is happening inside Afghanistan today.

Director: Ibrahim Nash’at (US/Germany 2023) 91 min.
In Pashto, Dari and English with English subtitles.
Not yet rated.