In 2021, as American troops withdrew from Afghanistan following 20 horrendous years at war, the very forces they fought against for those two decades were allowed to retake the country in a matter of months. Once the Taliban regained power, some of its first governing actions were to diminish the rights of women throughout Afghanistan, taking away their ability to be educated beyond sixth grade, to keep an occupation, and to even walk unaccompanied in public. Using only their cell phones and strong belief in self-determination, three women documented this cruel turn of events, both the personal struggles they faced being forced to give up jobs they’d spent their lives working towards and the resistance that grew as more women came out against these harsh laws.
This footage, which also includes occasional professional camera work, was eventually compiled by director Sahra Mani into the documentary “Bread & Roses,” which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023 and will be making its streaming debut on Apple TV+ later this month. The film is presented by the Eyan Foundation in association with Extracurricular and was produced by actress Jennifer Lawrence and Justine Ciarrocchi under their Excellent Cadaver banner, as well as executive producers Malala Yousafzai and Farhad Khosravi.
In an interview with Variety at the time of the film’s premiere at Cannes, Lawrence explained how the impetus for her involvement came from seeing news of Kabul’s fall and finding similarities to her own home country’s spiral towards totalitarianism.
“I was watching this from America, where Roe v. Wade was about to be overturned,” Lawrence said. “We felt helpless and frustrated with how to get these stories off of the news cycle and into people’s psyches. To help people be galvanized and care about the plight of these women.”
In presenting the film to a global audience, Lawrence hoped that viewers learned to appreciate the rights they often don’t think twice about and how easily they can be taken away.
“It makes me think about when I was little, how much I hated going to school. We take for granted that education is a way out for these women,” Lawrence said to Variety. “[Our subject] had all of that stripped away and can’t even go outside without a chaperone. It’s a right to have as a human, to have something to do every day and be productive in society.”
