James Longley on ‘Mohabat’ and Project About the Rohingya Genocide

Double Oscar nominee James Longley, who won the top award at Ji.hlava Documentary Film Festival on Saturday with “Mohabat,” will focus next on the Rohingya genocide.

Longley – who was Oscar nominated for “Iraq in Fragments” and “Sari’s Mother” – tells Variety at the Czech event, “I’ve already filmed act one of this project, working with Diane Weyermann [who died in 2021] at Participant Media, when they were still around [the company was shut down in 2024]. Next year marks the 10th anniversary of the 2017 genocide.”

He adds, “[It’s] a genocide that’s formally recognized as such by the United States, the EU and the British government, yet, surprisingly, no documentary feature has been produced on this subject. I’m uniquely prepared to make that film.”

Longley doesn’t mind being an outsider. His latest, “Mohabat,” is set in Afghanistan.

“I’m not attempting to become Afghan. I’m trying to help non-Afghans understand Afghanistan better. After fighting a war in their country for 20 years, this seems like the least we can do,” he says.

He arrived “with a camera in my hand instead of a gun” and was treated as a guest, not an enemy.

“I went to their country with the sincere goal of telling their stories, so I was accepted and afforded patience.

“I cannot describe what an honor it has been for me to live and work alongside the Afghan people, who are brave and pure of heart in a way most Americans could take a good lesson from.”

His protagonist, 12-year-old Mohabat, tries to hold his family together under Taliban rule after a U.S. drone kills his father while he’s out hunting.

“This happened during the first Trump administration, when Mike Pompeo was in charge of the drone program,” says Longley.

“During the 20-year war, such events were common and untold numbers of civilians were killed and forgotten far from the foreign journalists in Kabul….