A Journey in Afghanistan. After two decades of chaos and destruction, a country searches for its identity. Eight places. A cinematic encounter with people and their realities. A nightclub, a school, a hospital, a taxi – the people there talk about daily life in Afghanistan beyond the war and the Taliban. The director observes people and incidents on his journey, starting in the northern province and eventually reaching the capital Kabul. The result is a mosaic, presented as episodes leaving out West-European commentary.

Above all, Mast Qalandar (Ecstasy) is a look at heterodoxy and a celebration of its existence. Qalandars are a Sufi brotherhood of roaming dervishes who once ranged through an arch that crossed Asia, from Turkey to Pakistan and India. They are characterized by extreme mystical devotion and their revolutionary and anti-dogmatic attitudes within Islam, such as use of hachis and the rejection of alcohol and free submission to Haqq, the truth, which they see as the absence of limits rather than something which narrows and defines horizons. “Mast Qalandar” immerses us in the ritual encounter of these dervishes around the grave of the brotherhood's founder in Pakistan. A vision of heir devotion to “the beloved” that leads them into trance and ecstasy, where death means simply to “draw aside a veil”. Available online until December 27th 2020.