“Mom made it home alive from the street protest again today!” As soon as Zainab Entezar opens the door to her home and walks in, she is greeted by her young son and embraces him. She goes to the women’s street protests as though heading to work, and every time she leaves home, she fears she may never see her son again. 771 Days is director Zainab Entezar’s record of the 771 days she spent in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. As the stores, coffee shops, and bookstores she once frequented close, universities are shut down, and all social activities for women are banned, Entezar secretly makes a film on her own. The world seen through her camera lurches violently, turns upside down, collides, and is covered behind something. These images show us what it means to make a movie in a place where women have been stripped of all their rights. After 771 days, Entezar succeeds in escaping Afghanistan with a bag containing a camera, hard drive, and laptop, which are even more dangerous than a bomb. That is precisely where the film begins: Day 771.
She is an Afghan film director and writer. Her short film House (2016) was invited to the Locarno Film Festival, and her feature debut, Shot the Voice of Freedom (2024), was invited to numerous festivals, including the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) and the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, and won multiple awards for Best Documentary and Human Rights Film. As a writer, she has also written several novels, including Yusra: The Womenly Voices of Freedom. She is regarded as the first Afghan woman filmmaker to make films under Taliban rule.
From Busan International Film Festival 2026, No. 31
