RETURN TO KANDAHAR
A Personal Journey Across A Broken Land
A feature documentary by Paul Jay and Nelofer Pazira
World Premiere Broadcast on CBC TV
Thursday, March 27, 2003 @ 9pm

A bittersweet homecoming awaits Nelofer Pazira in RETURN TO KANDAHAR, a powerful feature length documentary by Paul Jay and Nelofer Pazira, shot in Afghanistan in July of 2002.

Nelofer Pazira, the star of the movie "Kandahar", returns to her native Afghanistan, to search for her childhood friend Dyana, whose story inspired Iranian director Mohsen Makmalbaf’s 2001 feature film. Landing in Kabul, 13 years after her family left Russian occupied Afghanistan, Nelofer unravels her past and the unfolding of history in her country while searching for Dyana. The epic journey takes her to Kabul, Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif, where Dyana’s uncle last had contact with her family.

Nelofer's journeys across a broken land, smashed by war with the Russians, years of anarchy under the "Northern Alliance', the Taliban and now by America's "war on terror". Incisively weaving Nelofer’s personal story with that of Afghanistan itself, RETURN TO KANDAHAR shows a country once again in the grip of warlords.

In Kabul, Nelofer visits her high school and family home, triggering memories including the imprisonment of her Father. In Kandahar, Nelofer visits the graveyard of ‘Al-Qaeda’ fighters, revered by local Afghans who visit these graves every day. In Mazar-e-Sharif, Nelofer searches for Dyana amongst thousands of misplaced families.

Paul Jay is one of Canada’s most acclaimed documentary filmmakers. Among his many feature documentary credits are "Lost In Las Vegas” for A&E; the legendary “Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows”, which has won over a dozen awards; and “Never-Endum-Referendum”.

Jay is also the creator and executive producer of CBC Newsworld’s “counterSpin”, now in its fifth season. Jay is the founder Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival.

Afghan-Canadian journalist, Nelofer Pazira has a degree in Journalism and English Literature and is continuing her studies towards an MA at Concordia University. Since 1996 Nelofer has made two documentaries about Iran. As a journalist she has worked for CBC Radio, written for Sight & Sound, Elm Street, Macleans Magazine, The Ottawa Citizen, The Toronto Star, Panorama and EI Semanal.

Produced, directed and edited by Paul Jay and Nelofer Pazira, RETURN TO KANDAHAR is produced by Icebreaker Films & j films inc. www.jfilms.org in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, www.cbc.ca.

For further information, photography, interviews or tapes contact:
Virginia Kelly ------Wendy Forbes
VK & Associates --CBC Television
416-466-9799, info.vk@sympatico.ca Toronto (416) 205-2734, wendy_forbes@cbc.ca