25/03/2022
The 2022 World Press Photo Contest regional winners were announced yesterday; there are 24 photographers from 23 countries. In the category ‘Asia, Stories’, the first prize went to Dutch photographer Bram Janssen (, The Associated Press (), for his beautiful and moving project ‘The Cinema of Kabul’. Congratulations, Bram!
Culture can also be a casualty of war. Following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Ariana Cinema in Kabul remained closed, its staff in limbo, waiting to hear whether the Islamist fundamentalist Taliban would allow films to be screened. The cinema, which had operated since the 1960s, was one of around half a dozen in the Afghan capital and was restored in 2004, after the previous Taliban government was overthrown. The Ariana is government-owned, and the Taliban allowed male employees to come in for work, but Asita Ferdous – the cinema’s first female director – was not allowed to enter the building. She has since moved to Pakistan, and is seeking asylum elsewhere. In early 2022, the cinema remained closed, and women were no longer allowed to be employed there.
📸: Bram Janssen, The Cinema of Kabul, 2021.
