My Childhood, My Country – 20 Years in Afghanistan premiered on ITV on Monday 6 September with original music by Richard Durrant.
You can still see the programme on ITV Hub
This unique film follows the life of a boy in Afghanistan over two decades, telling his story and that of his country in the years that followed 9/11. The film has now been extended to bring things up to date and to include the current worrying developments in Afghanistan.
Richard Durrant wrote the music for this film alongside Asa Bennett and Dimitri Tchamouroff.
Produced by Seventh Art Productions, we first meet Mir Hussain as a cheeky, funny 7-year-old living in a cave next to the destroyed Buddhas of Bamiyan statues in central Afghanistan. Over the following two decades the film bears witness to his adventures and Afghanistan’s struggles.
“20 years in the making, following the story of mischievous and endearing seven-year-old Mir Hussain from 2001 to 2021, this film is both a remarkable portrait of one child’s life in Afghanistan and of the conflict that has engulfed the region. This unique film could not be more timely.“
Kevin Lygo, Managing Director, Media & Entertainment at ITV
More than a personal journey, My Childhood, My Country – 20 Years in Afghanistan, is a powerful examination of what has – and has not – been achieved in Afghanistan over the past 20 years.
‘I can safely say that no film has captured the life inside an Afghan family in the way this one does. And little did we know that the final days of filming would coincide with the Taliban once again being in control of the country.’
Director Phil Grabsky
Watch ‘My Childhood, My Country – 20 Years in Afghanistan’ on ITV1 and ITV Hub on Monday 6 September at 10:45pm (immediately after News at Ten).