RoyaSadat dashboard
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Roya Sadat, is one of the first film female film directors to emerge after the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. She was born in north-west Herat province, where she studied Law & Politics a t Herat University. In 2006 she was awarded a scholarship to study at the Asian Film Academy in Busan, South Korea. Roya began her film career years earlier, however.
At the age of 12, before the Taliban regime, she began to write scripts for theatre productions at school. During the Taliban regime she, like other women, were not allowed to go out or work. During this time she busied herself by reading books about cinema at home. In 1999, while still under the Taliban regime and under much risk, she wrote and directed a theatre production for a group of Afghan women in Herat city.
Prevented from doing the work she so loved under the Taliban’s restrictive laws, she scripted her first fiction film, Three Dots, while still housebound and unable practice her passion. After the Taliban regime fell in 2002-2003 she had the opportunity to direct her first fiction film, Three Dots, for the first time. The hard-hitting film delved into the underground drug trade in Herat city and received numerous awards. It was also invited to more than 30 international film festivals over a period of three years following the film’s launch. It was screened in a number of countries, but, an anomaly for Afghanistan at the time, it was also aired in her home country by some television channels.
In 2003, she established Roya Film House with her sister, Alka Sadat. From 2003 to 2004 she was the director, writer, producer and announcer of the only women’s programme on Herat TV, Women in Society. In 2005 she co-directed Everyone Try and produced a documentary film, 1,2,3 ?. In 2006-2007, after the fall of the Taliban regime, she directed half of Afghanistan’s first TV drama, Raz hay en khana. She produced the documentary film Half Value Life in 2008 and in 2009 she directed and wrote the fiction-film Playing The Taar.
From 2010 to date she has been the director of Bahasht Khamosh, a television drama series that focuses on young peoples’ issues. The hugely popular series airs weekly on the national television station, Tolo TV and tackles difficult issues of drug abuse and corruption as well as other societal issues in a country scrambling to marry its rich history with a fast changing modern world.
At the age of 12, before the Taliban regime, she began to write scripts for theatre productions at school. During the Taliban regime she, like other women, were not allowed to go out or work. During this time she busied herself by reading books about cinema at home. In 1999, while still under the Taliban regime and under much risk, she wrote and directed a theatre production for a group of Afghan women in Herat city.
Prevented from doing the work she so loved under the Taliban’s restrictive laws, she scripted her first fiction film, Three Dots, while still housebound and unable practice her passion. After the Taliban regime fell in 2002-2003 she had the opportunity to direct her first fiction film, Three Dots, for the first time. The hard-hitting film delved into the underground drug trade in Herat city and received numerous awards. It was also invited to more than 30 international film festivals over a period of three years following the film’s launch. It was screened in a number of countries, but, an anomaly for Afghanistan at the time, it was also aired in her home country by some television channels.
In 2003, she established Roya Film House with her sister, Alka Sadat. From 2003 to 2004 she was the director, writer, producer and announcer of the only women’s programme on Herat TV, Women in Society. In 2005 she co-directed Everyone Try and produced a documentary film, 1,2,3 ?. In 2006-2007, after the fall of the Taliban regime, she directed half of Afghanistan’s first TV drama, Raz hay en khana. She produced the documentary film Half Value Life in 2008 and in 2009 she directed and wrote the fiction-film Playing The Taar.
From 2010 to date she has been the director of Bahasht Khamosh, a television drama series that focuses on young peoples’ issues. The hugely popular series airs weekly on the national television station, Tolo TV and tackles difficult issues of drug abuse and corruption as well as other societal issues in a country scrambling to marry its rich history with a fast changing modern world.
Films by RoyaSadat
