Afghan Exodus
Directed by André Singer
Synopsis
When Granada Television visited Afghanistan to make the award-winning Disappearing World ‘The Kirghiz’, they were a proud, independent, nomadic people who made their living by rearing herds of yaks and sheep.
Five years later, when Soviet troops had moved into Afghanistan, Granada returned to investigate the plight of its people. Fleeing from the Soviet Army, a million Afghans crossed the border into neighbouring countries. Among them were the shattered remnants of the Kirghiz.
Brilliant photography marks this in-depth record of the first million Afghan refugees who fled to Pakistan in 1980. Singer looks at the Kirghiz in Gilgit-wholly unfamiliar lower altitude terrain to them; the Pashtuns who joined fellow Pashtuns in Pakistan; the Pashtun who fled to the Quetta in Baluchistan; the Shi’a Mongol Hazaras who left their women and children behind.