Leena Alam

Leena Alam (Persian: , born in Kabul, Afghanistan) is an award-winning Afghan film, TV and theater actress who has appeared in films such as Kabuli Kid, Black Kite, Loori, A Letter to the President and Hassan. She has also been known as Shereen of Afghanistan () after playing in the taboo-smashing feminist TV drama, Shereen (), the first of its kind to have been made in Afghanistan, directed by Ghafar Azad and produced by Kaboora and Tolo TV. Shereen was nominated for Best Mini-Series Drama alongside The Night Manager, Mr. Robot and Deutschland 83 and Leena Alam was nominated for Best Actress at the Seoul International Drama Awards 2016 . 

In 1989, Alam and her family moved to America because of the civil war in her homeland. She began her acting and cinema career in 1998.

Career

Film work
At the start of her career, Alam modeled and took part in dance competitions. In 1994 she participated in Mr and Miss San Francisco India Pageant organized by Rennu Dhillon, where she captivated the audience with one and half minute Dance performance and was awarded the Best Talent winner. Her first movie was  (Promise of Love), produced by Tarin Films. But it was In Foreign Land directed by Hafiz Asefi which was released first in 1998.

In در سرزمین بیگانه (In Foreign Land), she played an Indian girl who had come to the United States to study but was devoted to her traditions and values. It was during the casting for this movie that Alam met Salaam Sangi, who would become her mentor. In Loori, by Orokzai Films, she played a traumatized Afghan girl with a brain injury who had forgotten her past. Alam has called this film—written specifically for her by Hamid Naweed, a poet, writer, and painter—one of her favorites.

In 2007, Alam returned to Kabul and appeared with Hadji Gul in Kabuli Kid, a French-Afghan drama produced by Fidélité Films directed by Barmak Akram. In 2013, she was in Soil and Coral an Iranian-Afghan film, produced by Parween Hussaini and directed by Masoud Atyabi. Also in 2013, she played one of the lead roles in the second season of the popular TV serial Kocha e Maa, directed by Mirwais Rekab. In 2014, she was in Ahwal e Darya produced by Axobaraxfilms, directed by Homayoun Karimpour and Black Kite by Tarique Qayumi. (Shereen) The struggle of a powerful woman a taboo-smashing feminist TV drama directed by Ghafar Azad produced at Kaboora/Tolo Tv was her latest work in 2016 playing the title role Shereen,  and A Letter to the President نامه ی به رئيس جمهور a film directed by Roya Sadat.
She also did few short films to help young filmmakers in Afghanistan, starring in Siyar Noorzad's Moving in a Circle and Lal Alizada's Live in Grave. ,  The Unknown by Ghafar Faizyar, "Qamar" by Nima Latifi and (In parentheses) directed by Ghafar Azad.

Alam has been a member of the jury at the Negah-e-No Film Festival in 2014 and 2015, member of the jury at the Afghanistan Human Right Film festival 2015, The Sama International Film Festival in Stockholm, Sweden 2016, the 8th National Theater Festival Afghanistan 2014 and International Feature Fiction Jury member at Adelaide Film Festival, Australia 2017.

She has appeared in music videos for Shafiq Mureed, Arash Barez, and Kerry Coulshed.

On the historic stage of The monastery ruin (Stiftsruine) in the 68th Bad Hersfelder Festspiele 2018, Hessen Germany, She played Solveig in Peer Gynt by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, directed by Robert Schuster the German theater director and professor at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin.

Social activism
Alam was named peace ambassador of the UNAMA United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan UNAMA in 2009.

Forty days after Farkhunda, a 27-year-old Afghan woman falsely accused of burning a copy of the Quran, was publicly beaten and burnt to death on March 19, 2015, Alam joined activists in Kabul to stage a re-enactment of the killing. She played the role of Farkhunda. The New York Times reported:

Awards
Best Actress – Kabul International Film Festival, Afghanistan 2008
Best Actress – Tolo Film Festival, Afghanistan 2009
Best Actress – Afghanistan Human Rights Film Festival, Afghanistan 2013
Best Actress – Negah-e-No Film Festival, Afghanistan 2014
Best Actress (honorary) – Herat-International Women's Film Festival, Afghanistan 2014
Best Actress – Negah-e-No Film Festival, Afghanistan 2015
Best Actress – Mehrgan International Film Festival, Afghanistan 2015
Best Actress – Herat-International Women's Film Festival, Afghanistan 2015
Best Actress -  Nomination, Seoul International Drama Awards, South Korea 2016
Honorary Award for Contribution to Afghan Cinema - The Sama International Film Festival in Stockholm, Sweden 2017
Best Actress - Nomination, Malaysia International Film Festival (Golden Global Awards) Malaysia 2018
Best Actress - Sinema Zetu International Film Festival ( SZIFF) Tanzania 2019

References

External links

 Official website

Category:Afghan film actresses
Category:Living people
Category:Afghan emigrants to the United States
Category:21st-century Afghan actresses
Category:1978 births
Category:20th-century Afghan actresses