A reporter orphaned by night raids in Afghanistan investigates their cruel legacy
Lynzy Billing’s sister and mother were killed in 1992 when, amid the Afghan civil war, her home was raided by soldiers in the night. Orphaned when her father also died in the war, Billing was adopted, eventually settled in Britain and later returned to Afghanistan as an investigative journalist. Based on a 2019 article by Billing, this animated short documents how nighttime raids proliferated in Afghanistan following the US invasion of the country in 2001, even as the tactic became controversial for killing hundreds of Afghan civilians. The result of more than three years of investigations by Billing, the film profiles both local perpetrators and victims of these US-backed raids, and finds a still-flowing river of tragedy and trauma in their wake.
videoDemography and migration
The volunteers who offer a last line of care for migrants at a contentious border
30 minutes
videoSports and games
Young Palestinians find fleeting moments of freedom at a West Bank skate park
13 minutes
videoPersonality
A ‘little thief’ turned career criminal recounts a life on the wrong side of the law
5 minutes
videoHuman rights and justice
Surreal, dazzling visuals form an Iranian expat’s tribute to defiance back home
10 minutes
videoValues and beliefs
Why a single tree, uprooted in a typhoon, means so much to one man in Hanoi
7 minutes
videoWar and peace
Two Ukrainian boys’ summer unfolds just miles from the frontlines
22 minutes
videoSports and games
Havana’s streets become racetracks in this exhilarating portrait of children at play
5 minutes
videoFairness and equality
‘To my old master’ – a freed slave answers the request to return to his old plantation
7 minutes
videoFamily life
One family’s harrowing escape from postwar Vietnam, told in a poignant metaphor
10 minutes