In the early 20th century, the suffragette movement adopted the phrase “Bread and Roses” from James Oppenheim’s 1911 poem, using it as a clarion call for both economic and social justice. More than a hundred years later the words provide the title to Sahra Mani’s powerful documentary about an even more challenging feminist struggle, featuring the brave activists in Kabul who attempted to stand in the way of an encroaching re-Tallibanification of their homeland.

So much of what has transpired over the last few decades in Afghanistan has been seen through the eyes of outsiders, be they the many fine docs that followed allied forces after their deployment soon after 9/11, right through to the likes of Matthew Heineman’s exceptional Retrograde that illustrated the end of military engagement by a withdrawing American contingent.

Mani’s Bread & Roses plays in fascinating contrast to these other works, for her subjects are not wearing body armor and carrying assault rifles, nor are they situated in the surreal barracks that create surreal simulacra of life “back home” for those engaged in the decades-long conflict in the region. Mani’s sights are firmly set on the Afghani women who so often become mere statistics when discussing the situation, either having their successes trumpeted statistically by Western forces, or their subjugation and silencing a central tenet of the Taliban’s recapturing of social and political power following the events of 2021.

‘Bread & Roses’ Is a Homegrown Story of International Importance

Stylistically, Mani’s film feels homegrown, with many of the scenes captured vicariously through handheld devices that strip down aesthetics in favor of access. We meet a wide range of women, some of whom are of a slightly lower economic class, but many who have benefited directly from the shifts in women’s educational and social opportunities that have magnified over the last generation. While the film has a clear political point of view, and the stories captured are deeply personal, there’s still a sense of journalistic objectivity at play, allowing these tales to unfold at a deliberate pace that refuses to shy away from the shifting mood as things turn truly dire.

The film is produced by Justine Ciarrocchi and Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence’s Excellent Cadaver Pictures, and it’s some of the latter’s star power that has provided additional international attention to the film during its festival run. To the filmmakers’ credit, there’s nothing Hollywood about this representation, and despite the relatively modest running time, this is still an immensely challenging watch, particularly from the vantage point of knowing that just about all we see is not going to end up the way that the subjects are surely hoping it will go.

So often, films of this nature that follow a series of activists are meant to serve as a kind of salve to distant audiences, allowing those vicariously witnessing the bravery of others to be sated that good deeds result in positive outcomes. For any student of history, the knowledge that Afghanistan has for many thousands of years been the site where the optimism of outsiders is crushed may serve as a beneficial presupposition, but for those wanting to leave Bread & Roses with a warm and fuzzy feeling about a glowing future, they’re surely going to be disappointed, if not downright depressed.

‘Bread & Roses’ Showcases the Strength of Those That Speak Truth to Power
Image via Apple TV+

For those less closed off to the almost Sisyphean strength of these women standing up to the return of Taliban rule, even their overt failures are signs that someone, anyone, is seen as standing up for universal notions of justice and fairness. The sacrifices these women make are not simply personal, they are meant to speak not only for those already closed off from communicating, but also for those not yet able to raise their voices. These are women who have tasted levels of freedom that were the direct benefit of the International incursion, a paradoxical fact that through occupation half the population was granted rights and privileges that, within moments of the recapture of the capitol by those formerly in charge, were stripped and the dark cloud of intolerance and persecution returned with a vengeance.

Watching these women gather in small groups to calligraphically create signs that seek little more than simple freedoms, using both Arabic script and English hashtags to try and get international attention, one can see a level of hope and eagerness to hold onto hard-won gains. Of course, watching the film in 2024, a year after its debut in Cannes and several years since it was filmed, what we witness serves as a kind of macabre time capsule. For those who managed to escape, it’s a reminder of all that they’ve left behind, for those still within the clutches of a regime that, as of this writing, continues to aggressively roll back rights daily for all its female citizenry, it’s hard not to be completely depressed and defeated by what we glimpse in Mani’s film from a few short years ago.

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On the one hand, what we see from these women attempting to bolster their gains in the early days of the Taliban’s return is a stunning reminder of those brave enough to stand up to tyranny, while on the other, it’s a shocking reminder of how, while the world’s attention has been fixated on other conflicts the plight of these individuals is for the most part ignored by even those that exhaustedly chant for justice and decry violence from other regimes. The world has basically written off Afghanistan save for scoring political points in recent national elections, decrying military failures but accepting as inevitable the savagery of the Taliban as some sort of inevitable backslide after the tease of Western-style freedoms for females, free for a period to sing, to dance, to read, to be educated, to have a voice that was able to be heard.

I was reminded of the Oscar-winning film The Square, Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer’s remarkable look at young activists in Egypt attempting their own form of revolutionary change. While the events of Tahrir a decade ago brought an uneasy coalition together to carve out a hopeful new path, only to have that vision stifled early on, it’s even more harrowing to see that for the women of Kabul they have lived the dream, they were thriving in their own ways within what was accepted as a new normal, and they could witness in real time how fragile such freedoms truly are, particularly when so few raise their voices against those intent on closing off all dissent.

‘Bread & Roses’ Peeks Through Afghanistan’s Curtain of Silence
Image via Apple TV+

As a curtain of silence has descended over Afghanistan, as the costs of trillions of dollars and many lives were proven impotent as in mere weeks the previous regime rolled back in with nary a shot fired by those tasked militarily with stopping the incursion, the fact that women armed only with the truth and their own convictions were there on the frontlines decrying these injustices is both humbling and harrowing.

The suffragettes, of course, won their own battle in the end, and the voices in the Western world of women are central to all political discourse, playing fundamental roles in elections around the globe. For the women in Afghanistan, those outside can still speak to the injustices, while inside the silencing is near complete, the schools have been closed, and new generations are to be raised with the stories of the last decades of relative freedom past down in whispers. For those that surely will deny that there ever was this period where the brave stood up to those wishing to strip away freedoms, this film serves not simply as a reminder, but as a full-throated call for justice.

In a land where truth is habitually stripped away in favor of political and religious control, Bread & Roses serves as a reminder of the bravery of those who sacrificed all for the love of their country and community. While the fight could not be further from being won, the film demonstrates that these calls for justice are as endemic to the land as those that wish to strip away these freedoms, and that those from within, not without, have the seeds to make a better future flourish in this hardened land. It may take years, it may even take generations, but as the women that Mani captures in her film attest, as long as there are even a few that will stand up to this tyranny, there is hope for a better, more just future for all residents of this troubled land.

Bread & Roses is now available to stream on Apple TV+ in the U.S.

‘Bread & Roses’ is a powerful, harrowing look at female activists standing up to the resurgence of Taliban rule in their home city of Kabul.ProsPowerful film with rare accessGives voice to the silenced in exceptional waysIntimate stories given global importance ConsShakycam footage is understandably, but occasionally offputting

Bread & Roses, directed by Sahra Mani, follows a group of women in Kabul as they navigate the challenges posed by the return of the Taliban to power. The film documents their courageous struggle for rights and survival in a rapidly changing and oppressive environment.Release Date November 22, 2024 Director Sahra Mani Runtime 90 Minutes

Watch on Apple TV+