The woman in bustling Kabul, a few hours after the withdrawal of international troops and the takeover of power by the Taliban, is the script of the film that is in the running for one of the top Awards of the British Film Academy.

The short film “Yellow” with Director of Photography and Co-Producer Yannis Manolopoulos, is nominated for the award in the Best British Short Film category. The 77th BAFTA Awards ceremony will take place on February 18 with David Tennant as host.

This is the second film with a Greek signature nominated for BAFTA, after “Poor Things” by Lanthimos, which in the race for awards has 11 nominations, second behind “Oppenheimer”, with 13 nominations.

The “self-made” film that moved the audience

In an interview with the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency, Yannis Manolopoulos “recommends” the film written and directed by Elham Ehsas and starring Afsaneh Dehrouyeh.

“At the time Elham wrote the script, the Taliban had just returned to power. They reiterated a series of bans that drastically limit women’s rights, excluding them from public life, schools, work and severely restricting their freedom of movement, which is only possible by wearing the chadari. Wanting to convey this image Elham wrote this short script with a very powerful dialogue, capturing the daily struggle that women in Afghanistan began to experience.

We are talking about a generation of women who grew up in a big country without restrictions and suddenly found themselves faced with this new reality that completely deprives them of their freedom. The purpose of the film as he very beautifully imagined it and sent me the first script was to describe the inner process and a small moment when a woman goes to face the reality of this thing. I was very moved by the script when I read it. We tried within a short time and this was my part to tell the story with pictures. In this particular case, we “framed” so that the sandals, which are always on the wall, are imposing in all scenes and above the head of the protagonist as if oppressing her”, said the Greek filmmaker.

“Without any financial help and wanting to do it quickly because of the exposure of the subject we developed the script and started using my own equipment. We found a fabric shop in Dalston, East London while Elham had a filmmaker friend who was filming a documentary at the time in Kabul. So he shot the first three shots of the film in the market and we continued to bridge it with the fourth shot shot in Dalston with relatives and friends of Elham,” added Mr Manolopoulos.

Ahmed Jan Mano completes the cast of the film in which the dialogues are written in Urdu language. Music plays a major role with notes played on a rap composed by Darryl John Hannan. The film is co-produced by Elham Ehsas, the Greek filmmaker as well as Dina Mousawi and Azeem Bhati.

“It is a small production that was completed with the efforts of the family, friends and ourselves. Immediately after, she began her journey making the “festival circuit”. With our own money again, we started strong and it started to go really well. It was very well received and screened at over 30 festivals I think. She started winning some awards, while we saw people loving her, and being moved by her subject. A few days ago we succeeded and made it to the Oscar and Bafta shortlists where the results of the latter made us candidates. Of course this is amazing. Now we’re waiting for January 23, when the Oscar nominations come out, and we hope to be there too,” he underlined.

Then Mr. Manolopoulos said that “if something good comes out of this whole trip for us, it would be that the matter be discussed publicly and of course there should be a change. We also believe that if it reaches the big awards it might catch some eyes that have the power to bring about some change,” and added: “For me, I believe and hope that it will have a big influence on my career because it definitely gives visibility. Although I’ve been here since 2010 having managed a steady flow of work I can’t say that I’ve entered the center of the industry i.e. making the biggest films, or series. I have worked on productions outside the country all over the world, India, Saudi Arabia which were very interesting and I really enjoyed them. Being based here in England I believe a nomination and maybe a win at Bafta will open doors for me to be able to discuss with producers of another range. My interest is in fiction cinema, whether that is in either the 2-3 hour format in the cinema or the new format that TV series have. The script, the director and the collaborators are important to me. Those of us in the field are in a very happy moment, because in recent years there has been a boom in television series in which the quality and budget are rising more and more and their level is converging towards cinema. So I don’t separate it in my mind. It’s more what’s of value, what script can speak to me so that I can offer. I would gladly do something in Greece as well.”

It is worth noting that with Elham Ehsas, the Greek filmmaker has collaborated again in the past. Born in Pakistan he has also previously worked with Steven Spielberg as well as for famous platforms. It is his second collaboration with Iranian-born actress Afsaneh Dehrouyeh.

“Cinema is a universal art that can unite people all over the world and this is one of the reasons I do it”, concludes Yiannis Manolopoulos.