Love Marriage in Kabul

In 2006, Sanaz Fotouhi, a young woman in her twenties, travels to Afghanistan with her partner to make a film

Seven years and four trips later their feature documentary Love Marriage in Kabul wins awards and the hearts of audiences in Australia and around the world.

Love Marriage in Kabul is the behind-the-scenes account of the hardships and heartaches, tears and joys of the seemingly impossible project of making a film in Afghanistan. It is the story of a young woman's determination to confront her fears to provide an insight into the hidden world of Afghanistan's widows and orphans.

With rare compassion and lucidity, Sanaz Fotouhi chronicles her inner struggles and external events and leads us to interrogate our own notion of humanity.

The manuscript of Love Marriage in Kabul: a Memoir won the University of Melbourne's 2019 Peter Blazey Fellowship.

'This is a beautifully written memoir about local traumas and predicaments, pitching them - often uneasily - against global movement and an increasingly cosmopolitan self-awareness.' — Judges of the University of Melbourne's Peter Blazey Fellowship

'When Sanaz Fotouhi was 15, she dreamt she was standing in a field and children in torn clothes were running towards her shouting 'Help!' No matter how many she helped over a wire fence, more kept coming. Ten years later, she found herself in Kabul at Hope House, a sanctuary for orphans and widows established by the indefatigable Afghan-Australian, Mahboba Rawi, to help make a film that would feature the love marriage of a young man from the orphanage and a local girl. While the narrative tension of this absorbing story is generated by the pitfalls and dangers of making a film in Afghanistan, and the drawn-out negotiations with the bride-to-be’s father to allow the wedding to take place, it is the children, with their tragic stories, irrepressible energy and dignity who win our hearts.' — Fiona Capp, Sydney Morning Herald