“WHEN the Taliban take over Afghanistan - Muzafar’s old country comes calling.”

 This Refugee Week, the Hamilton Area Rural Australians for Refugees (HARAR) are excited to screen a documentary made by former Afghan refugee and photographer Muzafar Ali, ‘Watandar, My Countryman’.

HARAR said the film focuses on the role Afghans and their descendants have played in the formation of Australia’s identity over the last 160 years.

The film’s writer/director/producer, Jolyon Hoff, said the documentary takes “a rare opportunity to re-examine Australia’s colonial history”.

Mr Ali’s own experience as a former refugee provided a perspective to the film’s production that began as a photographic expedition in outback Australia including Afghan cameleer descendants.

“When Muzafar decided to photograph them - in an attempt to understand his own new Afghan-Australian identity - we started filming,” Mr Hoff said.

Watandar, My Countryman, examines the complexities of relationships between colonial, ancient and immigrant Australians, and the power of individuals to create change.

The documentary will screen at the Hamilton Cinema on Monday, June 19, at 7.15pm.

All proceeds will go to HARAR’s activities in supporting refugees.