Hollywoodgate

A filmmaker stakes his own safety on gaining access to a US military site in Afghanistan that left billions in military hardware in the hands of the Taliban.

Not even Tinseltown could make this up. For a year after 31 August 2021, the last day of the US and allied occupation of Afghanistan, Egyptian filmmaker Ibrahim Nash’at was given permission to film inside the eponymous deserted US military base. It soon becomes clear that $7 billion's worth of poorly sabotaged armaments were left there, allowing the Taliban to transform itself into a significant fighting force. Over the course of the year, Nash’at followed ambitious Talib lieutenant Mukhtar and Malawi Mansour, the head of Afghanistan’s Taliban-controlled air force. The two grudgingly accepted the filmmaker’s presence and as time passed his camera revealed a dearth of humanity in the Taliban’s worldview. Hollywoodgate is a chilling portrait of the Taliban's return to power and a startling insight into this regime's worldview.