We have now confirmed the screening dates until the end of 2018. These are
- Friday 5 October
- Friday 2 November
- Friday 7 December.
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Dates for October, November and December
We’re back on Friday 7 September
Poppadom Pictures is back after the summer break on 7 September at Film Oxford. There’s no need to book – just show up to Film Oxford at 54 Catherine St, Oxford, OX4 3AH.
As usual we’ll show the children’s film starting at 5pm followed by curry around 6.30 or so, with the adults’ film starting around 7.15.
If you’re coming to the children’s screening please aim to arrive by 4.45 as this will help us to start at 5pm and allow more time for food between films.
The films are FREE though donations towards running costs are gratefully received.
Curry, supplied by The Everest, is £5 for adults & over 12s. (Pizza is available as an alternative for children.) Suggested donation £3 for children.
We’ll circulate details of the films to the mailing list shortly.
If you’re not on our mailing list and would like to know the film titles, email us at Poppadom.pictures[at]gmail.com. You can email us at the same address if you’d like to be added to our information list.
This is a community initiative so please be prepared to help with setting up and clearing up so we can all enjoy the evening.
BYO drinks (soft drinks will be provided).
Please bring plates and cutlery so we can avoid waste.
Take home your rubbish and empties at the end of the evening.
No films in July and August
As usual, we’re taking a summer break in July and August.
We’re planning to return in September and we’ll post the dates here and to our email list as soon as they are confirmed.
Have a lovely summer!
Bamyani family appeal ruling
We are delighted to announce that on the 17th of May the Bamyani family heard from the Judge that he has ruled in their favour and against the Home Office decision that Sohaila and Muslem must return to Afghanistan.
UPDATE: it’s been confirmed on 22 May that the Home Office have decided not to appeal against this ruling.
Hassan would like to extend his heartfelt thanks to everyone in the community who reached out to support the family so generously during this difficult time.
Screenings in May and June
We’ve just confirmed the dates of our next regular film and curry evenings:
Friday 11 May and
Friday 8 June.
These will be in the format of children’s film starting at 5pm followed by curry around 6.35 or so, with the adults’ film starting at about 7.15.
There’s no need to book – just show up to Film Oxford at 54 Catherine St, Oxford, OX4 3AH.
The films are FREE though donations towards running costs are gratefully received.
Curry, supplied by The Everest, is £5 for adults & over 12s. (Pizza is available as an alternative for children.) Suggested donation £3 for children.
If you’re coming to the children’s screening please aim to arrive by 4.45 as this will help us to start at 5pm and allow more time for food between films.
We’ve been informed that the terms of the licence we use doesn’t allow us to advertise the films on this website but we’ll be emailing the details out shortly.
If you would like to know the film titles, email us at Poppadom.pictures@gmail.com. You can also email us at the same address if you would like to be added to our information list.
This is a community initiative so please be prepared to help with setting up and clearing up so we can all enjoy the evening.
BYO drinks (soft drinks will be provided).
Please bring plates and cutlery so we can avoid waste.
Take home your rubbish and empties at the end of the evening.
Update on Bamyani family hearing
The appeal hearing against the deportation of Sohaila and Muslem Bamyani took place on 1st May in Birmingham.
A small group of supporters including relatives, friends and representatives from the local community joined the Bamyani family at the Appeal Court.
Councillor Helen Evans was called as a witness and made a statement to the judge conveying the immense local support for the family. Many of your letters were in the bundle of information given to the judge.
The judge decided he needed time to make a decision and will inform the family’s solicitor of his judgement by letter in the next four to six weeks. We will update you all when we hear the news.
The family’s legal costs are proving much higher than we had originally anticipated. To reflect this we have increased our target on the JustGiving page to £6000. We are able to keep the page open and will publicise it more widely to see if we can attract any more donations. We would be very grateful if you could share the page on Facebook and Twitter so we can reach new supporters.
Many thanks for your on-going support for the family which means so much to them and to us.
Bamyani family court date 1 May
The final appeal in the Bamyani’s case is at 10.00 am, May 1st.
Supporters are welcome to attend.
The hearing is taking place at:
Birmingham Immigration and Asylum Chamber (First Tier Tribunal)
Birmingham Civil and Family Justice Hearing Centre
Priory Courts
33 Bull Street
West Midlands
Birmingham
West Midlands
B4 6DS
How to get there:
By Train from Oxford:
Departs 07.39 arrives Birmingham New Street 09.00
Departs 08.12am arrives Birmingham New Street 09.18
Online donations for Bamyani family appeal
On 15 March 2018 Poppadom Pictures and Friction Talks held a poetry reading and film screening at Film Oxford to support Hassan Bamyani and his family. We began fundraising at the event to help the Bamyani family to fund their legal case to appeal against the decision by the home office to deport Sohaila and Muslem Bamyani.
As we’ve heard that many others would like to contribute, an appeal page has been set up on JustGiving at https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/bamyani-family-appeal.
Please share this link with others you know who are interested in helping. If you go to that page it’s easy to generate automatic links to it for Facebook and Twitter.
Finally, if you would also like to write a letter to support the Bamyani family you can find information about how to do this on this website.
Friction Talks, Poppadom Pictures and the Bamyani family are very grateful for the generosity shown at this event. Many thanks for your support!
Community support for the Bamyani family
‘The city I come from’, Thursday 15 March
On 15 March 2018 Poppadom Pictures and Friction Talks held a poetry reading and film screening at Film Oxford to support our friend and neighbour, the Afghan poet Hassan Bamyani. Hassan is currently appealing a Home Office decision to send his wife Sohalia and their son Muslem back to Afghanistan.
The event acted as a focal point for the local community’s support, drawing a very enthusiastic capacity crowd. Many thanks to everybody who contributed so generously to the collection towards the Bamyani family’s legal fees. Please read the updated information about how you can write letters to support the Bamyani family.
Film Oxford was buzzing and people queued down the street to get in. The wonderful community spirit was frequently remarked on and we’ve had messages celebrating ‘a very special night … really amazing to see the community in full action’, describing the event as ‘remarkable and moving’, ‘really heartening and amazing’, and ‘moving and cheering’.
Poetry reading
Hassan Bamyani performed his beautiful poems in resonant Persian while writer James Attlee provided English translations. Deploying both traditional poetic forms and what Hassan calls ‘white poetry’ – a freer style of poetry unbound by the strict conventions used by classic forms – subjects ranged from the tenderness and longing of classic love poems to celebrations of friendship and community and anger at the meaninglessness of war and the destruction of a whole way of life.
The poems captured the attention of all present, combing exotic imagery with emotions everyone could relate to. They vividly recreated experiences that are both particular and universal, from the Afghan custom known as Dard Dell, sitting and sharing heartache with a friend, to the horror, anxiety and vulnerability forced by war to leave the security of their homes:
When the muezzin calls
In the early morning darkness
we are food for the wolves.
The strong wind besieges us with snowdrifts
and we are circled by tigers …
The Boy Mir
The second part of the evening featured a screening of Phil Grabsky’s candid yet uplifting documentary, The Boy Mir. This follows the fortunes of the child first encountered in his earlier film The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan. Phil has told us that he’s continuing to film Mir as part of a 20-year project.
We’re very grateful to him for donating a number of copies of The Boy Mir on DVD to sell in support of the Bamyani family’s legal fees. If you would like to buy one (cost £7 / £10 including UK P&P). Please email us at poppadom.pictures.
You may have seen the Bamyani family’s case featured on BBC South news on March 15. The story was explored further on Radio Oxford the following morning and other media sources are interested in following up the case.
We’ll continue to add updates about the Bamyani family’s case to this website and we’ll also circulate news to our email list.
Images courtesy of Geron Swan and Jen Chesters
15 March screening of The Boy Mir
On Thursday 15 March we’re holding a special event to support Hassan Bamyani. Hassan will read his poetry with translation by James Attlee. This will be followed by a question and answer session and a screening of the award-winning documentary The Boy Mir (2011, 1h 30min) written and directed by Phil Grabsky.
DVDs for sale on the night
Phil Grabsky has very generously donated some DVDs of the film to sell at the event. Cost £7. Cash only please. All proceeds will go to the Bamyani family’s fund for their legal costs.
Following the international hit The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan, THE BOY MIR covers not just one year but ten. It tracks the irrepressible and lovable Mir from a naïve 8-year-old to a fully grown adult. Over the course of a decade, not only is this a journey into early adulthood in one of the toughest places on earth but also a film that is unmatched in mirroring and unveiling the vitally important story of modern Afghanista … In sum, this is a unique portrayal of life, full of humour, full of poignancy, in today’s Afghanistan.
