MUMBAI: Director Kabir Khan has recently been honoured with the Best Director for Kabul Express starring John Abraham and Arshad Warsi at the 3rd Asian Festival of 1st Films.
Additionally, Kabul Express was also awarded the Foreign Correspondents Association Purple Orchid Award, which is the critics’ choice award for Best Film, voted in by the media from 33 countries.
The 3rd Asian Festival of 1st Films (AFFF) was held in Singapore from 27 November to 4 December 2007. The selection committee comprising of Carol Haslam (UK), Gordon Chan (HK), Peggy Chiao (Taiwan) and Uma da Cunha (India) met in Singapore and viewed the eligible films over six days and nominated 11 features and 10 documentaries across nine award categories. An additional four features and four documentaries were selected in the non-competitive category.
The AFFF celebrates the excellence of first-time producers, directors, writers, cinematographers, actors and documentary makers from the Asia Pacific diaspora, with the winning selections awarded by an international celebrity jury and selection committee. Past winning films have went on to be screened and won awards at the likes of Cannes, Sundance, Berlin and other noted Film Festivals around the world.
Kabul Express was released in India in December 2006 to wide critical acclaim. It details the story of a couple of Indian journalists who are forced into an incident filled road trip across the country by a Pakistani member of the Taliban. Accompanying them are an American photojournalist and their Afghan guide. As the road twists and turns, so does the story as the five diverse passengers of the jeep ‘Kabul Express’ understand their commonalities in a country beset by differences. The film stars Indian stars John Abraham and Arshad Warsi with American actress Linda Arsenio, Pakistani actor Salman Shahid and Afghan actor Hanif Hum Ghum filling out the main roles. The film was directed by Kabir Khan and was based on the director’s own experiences shooting documentary films in post Taliban Afghanistan.
