The ceremony of Venice City Award 2017 was held on September 6th in Mestre -Venice where the winner of the award is officially announced.

BEHIND VENICE LUXURY- a Hazara in Italy pictures the struggles of a Hazara refugee who came to Italy ten years ago and despite all problems for refugees in this country, today he is integrated into Italian society.

Before this Hazara refugee, decades back Italy had received two Afghan Royal families as refugees; King Amanullah Khan’s family and King Zahir Shah’s family escaped to Italy. Each of these two royal families had played a role in Hazaras’ lives back in Afghanistan.

Amanullah Khan’s grandfather the tyrant King Abdur Rahman Khan had massacred almost 62 percent of the Hazaras, while Zahir Shah’s family had banned Hazaras from higher education and governmental employment and imposed on them heavy extra taxes.

Asharaf Barati’s story is the story of almost every Hazara as one of the most persecuted people on earth; despite their honesty, peaceful manner, hardworking, natural talents and extraordinary capabilities, the Hazaras have to struggle for survival, as they always face with systematic discrimination and brutal violence in their homeland.

Directed by Hazara filmmaker, Amin Wahidi, written by Hazara journalist and activist Basir Ahang and Italian critic and activist Nicole Valentini, BEHIND VENICE LUXURY is produced by Deedenow Cinema Production Afghanistan, Hazara International Network, Academy of Art and Cinematic Studies in West of Kabul and supported by Hazara Film Fund.

The director’s previous short film THE GUEST/L’Ospite had won the Venice City Award in 2014.

BEHIND VENICE LUXURY is selected for 24th Venice City Award 2017 during 74th Venice International Film Festival.The ceremony of Venice City Award 2017 will be held on September 6th in Mestre -Venice where the winner of the award will be officially announced.

BEHIND VENICE LUXURY- a Hazara in Italy pictures the struggles of a Hazara refugee who came to Italy ten years ago and despite all problems for refugees in this country, today he is integrated into Italian society.

Before this Hazara refugee, decades back Italy had received two Afghan Royal families as refugees; King Amanullah Khan’s family and King Zahir Shah’s family escaped to Italy. Each of these two royal families had played a role in Hazaras’ lives back in Afghanistan.

Amanullah Khan’s grandfather the tyrant King Abdur Rahman Khan had massacred almost 62 percent of the Hazaras, while Zahir Shah’s family had banned Hazaras from higher education and governmental employment and imposed on them heavy extra taxes.

Asharaf Barati’s story is the story of almost every Hazara as one of the most persecuted people on earth; despite their honesty, peaceful manner, hardworking, natural talents and extraordinary capabilities, the Hazaras have to struggle for survival, as they always face with systematic discrimination and brutal violence in their homeland.

Directed by Hazara filmmaker, Amin Wahidi, written by Hazara journalist and activist Basir Ahang and Italian critic and activist Nicole Valentini, BEHIND VENICE LUXURY is produced by Deedenow Cinema Production Afghanistan, Hazara International Network, Academy of Art and Cinematic Studies in West of Kabul and supported by Hazara Film Fund.

The director’s previous short film THE GUEST/L’Ospite had won the Venice City Award in 2014.

BEHIND VENICE LUXURY- a Hazara in Italy is the first feature documentary supported by Hazara Film Fund.This documentary pictures the struggles of a Hazara refugee who has come to Italy ten years ago and despite all problems for refugees in this country, today he is integrated into Italian society.

Before this Hazara refugee, decades back Italy had received two Afghan Royal families as refugees; King Amanullah Khan’s family and King Zahir Shah’s family escaped to Italy. Each of these two royal families had played a role in Hazaras’ lives back in Afghanistan.

Amanullah Khan’s grandfather the tyrant King Abdur Rahman Khan had massacred almost 62 percent of the Hazaras, while Zahir Shah’s family had banned Hazaras from higher education and governmental employment and imposed on them heavy extra taxes.

Asharaf Barati’s story is the story of almost every Hazara as one of the most persecuted people on earth; despite their honesty, peaceful manner, hardworking, natural talents and extraordinary capabilities, the Hazaras have to struggle for survival, as they always face with systematic discrimination and brutal violence in their homeland.

Directed by Hazara filmmaker, Amin Wahidi, written by Hazara journalist and activist Basir Ahang and Italian critic and activist Nicole Valentini, BEHIND VENICE LUXURYis produced by Deedenow Cinema Production Afghanistan, Hazara International Network, Academy of Art and Cinematic Studies in West of Kabul and supported by Hazara Film Fund.

Hazaras as the most persecuted population on earth has a long history of sufferance that has to be evidenced, visualized, archived and related to the world in its best way. A nation that has lost more than 62 percent of its population in only one of the numerous genocides it faced deserves to be remembered.

Therefore, along with literature, the art of cinema is one of the most important means to tell the story of Hazaras and document their genocides and other sufferings they’ve been through.

The post genocide slavery, ethnic cleansings, racial discrimination and forced displacement are the crimes committed against the Hazars and need to be documented, remembered and told to the world for the contemporary and future generations.

Hazara Film Fund (HFF) is a media support fund established by the Hazara International Network in 2017 for the purpose of developing, (and if possible) producing, supporting the production of and promoting and facilitating the screenings of particular short, feature fiction and documentary films that:

A)Are written, directed or produced by Hazara filmmakers that particularly focus on one of Hazaras’ issues.

B)Have Hazaristan (the provinces of central Afghanistan inhabited by the Hazara natives) as the main locations

G)Are introducing to the world Hazara personalities including artists, writers, winner athletes and sportsmen, social activists, scientists and politicians

The Aims of the HFF Fund

The aim of this fund is to support the Independent Hazara and Non Hazara filmmakers who promote the importance of peace, justice, equality, human rights and democracy. Especially the filmmakers, who believe the Hazaras as the most persecuted population on earth, should have their image spread in the world and want to evidence this fact.

Activities:

The activities of HFF (Hazara Film Fund) are being managed by panels of media and cinema professionals that work in four different teams in a chain of sequences based on their activities:

1) POOL of IDEAS and SCRIPTS that announces call for entries on annual bases, seasonal basis, semester basis and or whenever there are important current issues regarding Hazaras

2) BOARD of REVIEW and SELECTION that reviews and selects from the received scripts and allocate fund for it

3) BOARD of TECHNICAL/ARTISTIC SUPPORT assists in phases of pre-production and (if needed) during the production and post production

4) TEAM of MARKETING and PROMOTION of the produced product, to promote it

Sources of Hazara Film Fund:

The Fund given to the filmmakers by HFF is collected through fundraising donations by Hazara Diaspora all over the world, Hazara people’s friends, international organizations that promote peace and justice and any individuals that believe Hazaras as the most persecuted people on earth deserve to be documented and related.

HFF Funds Category:

Fund(s) for a feature fiction film (90-120 minutes)

Fund(s) for a feature documentary film (90-120 minutes)

Fund(s) for a medium-length documentary film (up to 52 minutes)

Fund(s) for a short fiction films (up to 15 minutes)

Fund(s) video clip

Fund(s) for the best screenplay

Call for Entry Period: (Will be available soon)

Fund Allocation Period: (Will be available soon)

Terms and Conditions for Fund Allocations:

The applicants must have a resume with previous work samples or a show reel link in order to be considered a candidate.

The (audio-video) quality of the final product must be high enough to be acceptable for international festivals.

If needed, technical assistance and mentor ship are given by the HFF team during development, production and post production.

In order to have a better result of the work, the HFF team deserves the right to conduct production audits and quality control of the product.

The applicants/winners must meet the deadlines of submitting the otherwise the other installments would not be released

Installments:

In order to have a fine result of the final product, HFF Funds are allocated in three installments; 20 % in pre-production, 30 % during the production and 50% after the completion of the work.

Reza Hazare is a great painter and artist. He is a #Hazara from #Afghanistan.Since 3 years he is living as an asylum seeker in #Sweden but his asylum request has not been accepted by the Swedish Govt and now he risks deportation. Please support him! @HazareReza #RezaHazare