Leena Alam

Leena Alam
Born Leena Alam
Kabul, Afghanistan
Occupation Actress, social activist, producer
Years active 1998–present

Leena Alam (Persian: لينا علم, born in Kabul, Afghanistan) is an award-winning Afghan film actress who has appeared in films such as Kabuli Kid, Loori, and Moving in a Circle. She is also known as (شیرین افغانستان) Shereen of Afghanistan, "Shereen-شیرین" The struggle of a powerful woman a taboo-smashing feminist TV drama ever to be made in Afghanistan, directed by Ghafar Azad produced at Kaboora/Tolo TV. In 1989, Alam and her family moved to America because of the civil war in her homeland. She began her acting and cinema career in 1998.

Career

Film work

At the start of her career, Alam modeled and took part in dance competitions. Her first movie was (Promise of Love), produced by Tarin Films. She played a tutor who fell in love and committed suicide after being rejected for her past.

In در سرزمین بیگانه (In Foreign Land), she played an Indian girl who had come to the United States to study but was devoted to her traditions and values. It was during the casting for this movie that Alam met Salaam Sangi, who would become her mentor. In Loori, by Orokzai Films, she played a traumatized Afghan girl with a brain injury who had forgotten her past. Alam has called this film—written specifically for her by Hamid Naweed, a poet, writer, and painter—one of her favorites.

In 2007, Alam returned to Kabul and appeared with Hadji Gul in Kabuli Kid, directed by Barmak Akram. She also did a few short films to help young filmmakers in Afghanistan. She had roles in Siyar Noorzad's Moving in a Circle and Lal Alizada's Live in Grave. In 2012, she was in The Unknown by Ghafar Faizyar, and in 2013, she was in Soil and Coral, produced by Parween Hussaini and directed by Masoud Atyabi. Also in 2013, she played one of the lead roles in the second season of the popular TV serial Kocha e Maa, directed by Mirwais Rekab, and appeared in a short film, Qamar, by Nima Latifi. In 2014, she was in Ahwal e Darya by Homayoun Karimpour and Black Kite by Tarique Qayumi.

Alam was a member of the jury at the Negah-e-No Film Festival in 2014 and 2015, also member of the jury at the Afghanistan Human Right Film festival 2015 and The Afghan International Film Festival in Stockholm 2016. She has appeared in music videos for Shafiq Mureed, Arash Barez, and Kerry Coulshed. (Shereen) The struggle of a powerful woman a taboo-smashing feminist TV drama directed by Ghafar Azad produced at Kaboora/Tolo Tv was her latest work in 2016 playing the title role Shereen. (In parentheses) a film directed by Ghafar Azad, Letter to the president نامه ی به رئيس جمهور directed by Roya Sadat.

Social activism

Alam was named peace ambassador of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in 2009.

Forty days after Farkhunda, a 27-year-old Afghan woman falsely accused of burning a copy of the Quran, was publicly beaten and burnt to death[1] on March 19, 2015, Alam joined activists in Kabul to stage a re-enactment of the killing. She played the role of Farkhunda. The New York Times reported:

On the morning of the re-enactment, Ms. Alam woke up with butterflies in her stomach. Though she is an experienced film actor, she said it was proving a tough role. For one thing, Ms. Alam had been among the mourners at Farkhunda’s burial, and it was the first real dead body she had ever seen, she said. [...]

She and her fellow actors agreed then that there would be no crying during their performance, but in rehearsals, they all kept bursting into tears. "The workers, my director, everyone, we were just mental," she said. One person would cry, then she did. "I kept saying, ‘Don’t make me weak, I don’t want to cry."

During the re-enactment, some of her fellow actors got a little too into character, she said, and though their rocks and clubs were made of sponge or foam, her face began to sting from all the blows, and she came away a bit bruised. Spectators often gasped because it seemed so real, and even some of the policemen were seen to be weeping.[2]

Awards

Official Website

http://www.leena-alam.com

References

  1. ↑ Goldstein, Joseph; Shakib, Ahmad (2015-03-20). "A Day After a Killing, Afghans React in Horror, but Some Show Approval". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2015-12-23.
  2. ↑ Nordland, Rod (2015-04-27). "Tears Replace Cheers in Re-enactment of Farkhunda's Killing in Afghanistan". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2015-12-23.

Leena Alam

External links

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