WEB DESK: A gripping documentary, Bread & Roses, offers a rare glimpse into the lives of Afghan women under Taliban rule. Produced by Jennifer Lawrence and Malala Yousafzai, the film captures their daily struggles post-U.S. withdrawal, bringing a powerful narrative to screens next week.
“When Kabul fell in 2021 all women lost their very basic rights. They lost their rights to be educated, to work,” Lawrence said in Los Angeles.
“Some of them were doctors and had high degrees, and then their lives were completely changed overnight.”
The documentary, which debuted at Cannes in May 2023, was directed by exiled Afghan filmmaker Sahra Mani, who reached out to a dozen women after the fall of Kabul.
She tutored them on how to film themselves with their phones — resulting in a moving depiction of the intertwined stories of three Afghan women.
We meet Zahra, a dentist whose practice is threatened with closure, suddenly propelled to the head of protests against the Taliban government.
Sharifa, a former civil servant, is stripped of her job and cloistered at home, reduced to hanging laundry on her roof to get a breath of fresh air.
And Taranom, an activist in exile in neighboring Pakistan, watches helplessly as her homeland changes.
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