The filmmaker Brishkay Ahmed discusses his new documentary In the Room, debuting at the Vancouver International Film Festival (07, 10 October 2025), with Joseph Planta.

Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.  

Brishkay Ahmed joins me again. Her new documentary In the Room has its world premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival next week (Tuesday, 07 October and Friday, 10 October 2025). It’s a timely, and necessary film about the heroism of Afghan women that Brishkay had encountered in the past, either professionally or as a young fan or observer. She follows the tumultuous history of Afghanistan through the stories of these women Nelofer Pazira-Fisk, Vida Samadzai, Sahar Parniyan, Mozhdah Jamalzadeh, and Shogofa Sediqi, through their heritage, as well as the often harrowing circumstances that they have encountered over the years. What Brishkay and her team have done in the film is create a thoughtful space in which she and each of these women are able to have heartfelt, important conversations. The spaces themselves, as I’ll remark are thoughtfully and lovingly curated and designed, and allow for conversations that bring to the viewer sometimes a harrowing plight or tragedy, but in the end hope, especially for Afghanistan, and more importantly, the young women who are the country’s future. Brishkay Ahmed was first on the program in 2012 when her documentary Story of Burqa: Case of a Confused Afghan debuted. She’s since produced the award-winning documentary In the Rumbling Belly of Motherland, and created and co-directed the Afghan prime-time drama Between You and Me. Visit her website at https://www.brishkayahmed.com/ for more. And visit www.viff.org for tickets and information for In the Room, which is a production of the National Film Board of Canada. We spoke earlier this week, with Brishkay joining me from here in Vancouver. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Brishkay Ahmed; Ms. Ahmed, good morning.

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