Hollywoodgate
(Germany/USA, 91 min.)
Dir. Ibrahim Nash’at
Filmmaker Ibrahim Nash’at pauses for a telling moment of self-reflexive filmmaking in Hollywoodgate. He disrupts his fly-on-the-wall observation of Taliban forces returning to power with a subtle pan of his camera. Nash’at turns the camera to record himself in a mirror. He occupies about a third of the frame, while Taliban members comb through the barracks abandoned by American troops. His presence isn’t particularly welcome, as the terrorists debate if it was a good idea to let him film their return to power. “If his intentions are bad, he will die soon,” Mawlawi Mansour, Air Force Commander and Nash’at’s chief subject, says matter-of-factly.
It’s not the only moment in Hollywoodgate in which a member of the Taliban suggests that the filmmaker is disposable. It’s also not the only instance in which the filmmaker acknowledges the complexity of his observational approach.
Hollywoodgate, one of 15 films on the Oscar shortlist for Best Documentary Feature, asks what happens when a filmmaker receives rare access that comes with a caveat. Signs advertising “no cameras” are everywhere as Nash’at trains his lens granted a unique privilege around the restricted zone. Members of the Taliban mutter things like, “Don’t let the cameraman see that.” Sometimes, they outright order him to stop filming. He has to comply when the situation is do or die.
Nash’at notes in voiceover at the beginning of the film that the Taliban grants him access to their operations with a very specific idea of the film he’s making. They essentially want a puff piece. Anything critical or unflattering and he’s dead, as they frequently remind him. At the same time, Nash’at makes clear to viewers that he doesn’t share the Taliban’s objective. He’s there to film the devastation of Afghanistan at the Taliban’s hands. All he can do, however, is film. This “just the facts” approach offers cinéma vérité in pure form and the results are downright chilling.
Hollywoodgate explores the dynamics of objective observational filmmaking as Nash’at tours with the Taliban amid its return to power. Bolstered by some powerhouse producers, including Navalny Oscar winners Shane Boris and Odessa Rae and Of Fathers and Sons director Talal Derki, this film offers an essential document of the fallout from the war in Afghanistan. It captures the mundane mechanism of a transfer of power that doesn’t do the world any good.
Nash’at films for nearly a year with the Taliban following the withdrawal of American troops in August, 2021. The barracks, whose access points are doors bearing “Hollywood Gate #,” are both a garbage dump and treasure trove. Mansour leads his men to rummage through the estimated $7,120,000,000 worth of equipment and weaponry that the Americans left behind. There are eggshells, half-filled bottles of Fireball, and smashed-up computers. There’s also an entire warehouse of expired medicine. It is, simply put, a gob-smacking amount of waste.
What really interests Mansour and his men, however, are the weapons. The Americans disabled them before leaving, but they didn’t completely destroy them. Nash’at observes how the U.S.’s get-in, get-the-job-done, get-out approach essentially re-armed the enemies they sought to snuff out. The Taliban rewires and refurbishes some high-calibre weapons, but also some tanks and helicopters. They even stage a parade of might for foreign observers. Complete with pageantry and fanfare, the event proves very ominous.
Nash’at subtly observes the changes in his country at the Taliban’s command. The journalist’s eye captures the stripping back of women’s rights, but also finds humorous irony as the Taliban men use the unisex washrooms of the American barracks. Progress endures in the unlikeliest of places.
If Hollywoodgate continues the story told by Matthew Heineman’s Retrograde, which captured the U.S. troops’ withdrawal, it also provides commentary for the Americans’ departure. The amount of junk left behind is, again, staggering, but the film also observes the wasteful economics of war. Seven billion dollars could do the world a lot of good, and what Nash’at’s camera captures, ultimately, is the futility of it all. (Imagine had that money been spent on aid for Afghan refugees.) Sure, the U.S. smoked out Osama Bin Laden and some high-ranking Al Qaeda members during a 20-year-war, but Hollywoodgate bears witness to the Taliban’s return and they’re stronger than ever thanks to the toys Uncle Sam gave them. Someone else’s trash truly is another person’s treasure.
