After escape, Afghan director mourns her 'lost country'

Afghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat watched with fascination as Taliban fighters took over her city, and terrified crowds animated the streets

PARIS -- As a filmmaker, Shahrbanoo Sadat watched with fascination as Taliban fighters took over her city and terrified crowds animated the streets. But as an Afghan woman, she also watched the scene through another prism and knew: It was time to flee. After her family’s harrowing escape from Kabul, Sadat is now warning world governments: “The Taliban is a terrorist group and the world should realize they are dangerous,” she told The Associated Press in Paris on Sunday. “I’m losing my belief in democracy, in human rights, in women’s rights,” she said, because she feels that Western countries aren’t doing enough to defend these things in Afghanistan. Sadat, whose first film “Wolf and Sheep” won an award linked to the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, and nine family members were among thousands of Afghans brought out by foreign governments before the last U.S. troops pulled out last week.