In Shahrbanoo Sadat’s energetic and captivating drama, a movie-mad boy is forced to live in a Soviet-run orphanage during the 1981 occupation
![The Orphanage review – terrific tale of an Afghan teen in trouble](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/9caafab9635ef1e9d62c7405fc3deb8f419998f0/0_0_540_324/master/540.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctcmV2aWV3LTQucG5n&enable=upscale&s=30d4bfdd130147152bde75acd07265f4)
In 2016, the young Afghan director Shahrbanoo Sadat won a prize at the Directors’ fortnight in Cannes for her quasi-autobiographical debut Wolf and Sheep, about shepherd children in the mountains of central
Afghanistan. Now Sadat, who is 29, has directed a sequel, following the life of one of these children: Quodrat, now a teenager and still played by the same non-professional, Quodratollah Qadiri.
He is shown living in
Kabul during the
Russian occupation in 1981. Both his parents are dead. Movie-mad and obsessed with Bollywood pictures, Quodrat is arrested for selling cinema tickets on the black market, and he is made to live in a Soviet-run orphanage, where the lessons are in Russian. There is bullying and intrigue, but also opportunities for adventure.