Nadia Hossaini

Nadia Hossaini is an Afghan documentary filmmaker. Her latest documentary Najia (2012) tells the true-life story of a young girl who is forced to seek refuge in an orphanage to escape her uncles, the alleged killers of her father. While conducting research in a Kabul orphanage, Hossaini began interviewing the girl and her mother to her tell story, which unfortunately is that of many Afghan children. The documentary remains unfinished as Hossaini started receiving death threats because of the content of the film.

Sedaye Gamhai Sabze Bara (2009), Hossaini’s first documentary film, was granted third place at a national Iranian student film festival. Her sophomore film, Siah Gerd (2010), which documents the lives of opium-addicted women and children poppy field workers, garnered high media attention and praise, winning the first prize at the White Shadows Film Festival in Kabul and an honorable mention at the Women’s Voices Festival in the USA in 2011. Nadia Hossaini studied film directing at university in Tehran, Iran.

Nadia Hossaini ICORN artist-in-residence in Drøbak 2015-2017.

See the film "Siah Gerd" on You Tube

(A film by Nadia Hossaini/Afghanistan/2010/13:41)

Residents of a village in Afghanistan speak out about their addiction to opium. Women use opium as a pain reliever and as a sedative for their children. With their husbands away at war, they need their children to sleep in order to do their work.