Afghan director’s debut film enters European Film Market

The debut feature by Afghan filmmaker Shabnam Zariab has entered the international marketplace, with global sales launching at the European Film Market (EFM).

The film, titled Les Clochettes de Kaboul (international title: When She Hears the Bells), is being sold worldwide by the French company Le Pacte. The project is currently in post-production, with parts of the film shot inside Afghanistan.

Starring Golshifteh Farahani, the story follows Leila, a widowed woman working in a kitchen in Kabul who gradually discovers that the site is a cover for a network exploiting teenage boys forced to perform in women’s clothing for powerful men. As the Taliban advance toward Kabul in 2021, she decides to help a group of the boys escape before the city falls.

The film is a European co-production backed by Alta Rocca Films, Starhaus Filmproduktion, Versus Production, and Arte France Cinéma.

Zariab — the daughter of renowned Afghan writer Rahnavard Zaryab — has described the project as both a personal responsibility and a form of artistic resistance, aiming to highlight gender inequality, the realities faced by Afghan women and children, and the social upheaval surrounding the fall of Kabul in August 2021.

With international sales now underway, the film is expected to move toward festival premieres and worldwide distribution in the coming months.