INSIDE AND OUT Afghan Life in Shahrbanoo Sadat’s Wolf and Sheep
In Wolf and Sheep (Shahrbanoo Sadat, 2016), rural village life is a picture of structure and order. Men argue about the size of their flocks and what it says about their standing, while their wives embark on the same line of thinking by judging others based on their fertility and children. Women fulfil domestic tasks, knowing their place and purpose within the community. Kids attend to sheep and goats, herding them between grazing fields, but also abide by segregated gender lines. Girls gossip about local comings and goings – who is having affairs, or acting unusually; who is and isn’t popular – when they’re not carrying out their chores. Boys whirl slings filled with rocks, trade insults about one another’s mothers and boast about their physical prowess.
As everyday social interactions, there’s little that’s surprising about these activities and encounters – far from our milieu though they may be. They’re emblematic of roles and routines seen in remote, less developed areas, both now and throughout history. Given the film’s cinema vérité look and feel, and the narrative’s basis in writer/director Sadat’s own experiences, the events depicted are also highly representative of ordinary existence in its Afghan setting.
