JIRGA is a unique look at the impact of war on both sides, and specifically at the war in Afghanistan, where armies from all over the world have fought for the United States. Here, a former Australian soldier returns to a village where he was involved in war crimes. Seeking relief from his torment, he puts his life in the hands of the village justice system - the "Jirga."
Shot in Afghanistan after the Pakistani Secret Service cancelled permission to film, director Benjamin Gilmour took his star Sam Smith and filmed in Taliban-controlled regions of Afghanistan, using some incredibly natural non-actors, a few being former members of the Taliban itself.
"I was approached by a Pakistani producer who had found a Pashtun financier ready to put up $100K for the production of my script in Pakistan," said Gilmour. "My film was set in Afghanistan, but to benefit from the finance we'd need to shoot in Pakistan's Khyber Paktunkwha province. I approached Sam Smith, a talented actor from Sydney (not the singer) who was up for the adventure. We flew to Islamabad, only to discover the financier did not have permission to shoot from the ISI - the Pakistan secret service; who actively blocked the production after reading the script, considering it too politically sensitive. The Pashtun financier pulled his money out. Sam Smith and I were stranded in Pakistan with no team and no money and were now being tailed and harassed by the secret service. We could have flown back home then, but instead decided to shift the whole shoot to Afghanistan, risking our lives and investing some crowd funding and personal savings to make it..."
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