Shot in moody black-and-white, we see the silhouette of a man with his back to us, gazing out a window, snow swirling in a cold, wintry cityscape. He says, “It’s not there anymore. It was a dream, and now you wake up, and that’s gone. That was so much happiness … I never thought I would leave the country, and there would be war and violence again. I never wanted to be a refugee in Germany, or anywhere else in Europe. The power of the homeland and the love of that just keeps pulling you toward the past.” Thus opens “Champions of the Golden Valley,” a remarkable documentary playing at the M.V. Film Festival about an improbable dream and its aftermath.
We hear about the dream in footage from 2019. Alishah, the silhouetted man, stands in a remote village in the mountains of Afghanistan. He tells us that he got his first set of skis after an NGO distributed them in 2011. “I was looking curiously — ‘What is this?’ I had never heard about it. Of course, there was not a TV at home to see.” Alishah explains that although he trained in Europe and initially set his sights on becoming an Olympic skier, he didn’t qualify. However, he returned from the competition with a dream — to create the Afghanistan Ski Challenge in his home, the Golden Valley of Bamyan. With no ski lifts in sight and primitive conditions, the rules were simple. Walk up, ski down, and the first to cross the finish line was the winner.
Alishah says about his endeavor: “This is my fate, and this is my dream. I have to try my best to build this country in a positive way.” His competition, which was created before the Taliban regained power, ignited a passion for skiing among the villagers, many of whom were shepherds high up in the mountains. Alishah introduces us to two ace skiers from rival villages. Mujtaba, who has won the competition numerous times, and Hussain Ali live traditional lives of devotion and hard work, but train hard in the rugged, snow-laden terrain. While they have real equipment, swarms of others build their skis from wooden planks and plastic milk jugs, slip their feet into rubber boots, and take to the slopes. Remarkably, Alishah also organizes women skiers, who glory in the sport. Alishah says that when others witnessed this, “They realized girls can ski; they are no different than men.”
The multiple-day competition is glorious: “Sport is a way to make friendships and forget about anything you’ve gone through with each other in the past.” The communities come together, and all seems right in the world. He reflects, “Bamyan is something special. We have so many dreams for our people to be happy … like other people in the world. Study, do sports, women and men on the mountain in a peaceful way.”
Sadly, the moment of joy and triumph is soon destroyed when the Taliban retakes power. The nightmare footage of his and his family’s escape and the fate of others is sobering. In Germany, Alishah shares his internal struggles to come to terms with his exile with raw honesty and an uplifting exploration of what it means to be a champion — in all its forms.
Director Ben Sturgulewski began the film in 2019 as a short, celebratory documentary about camaraderie in this Afghanistan skiing community. Just as he was completing it in 2021, the country shockingly collapsed to the Taliban. “Our subjects reached out for help, and the production team and I shelved the film, turning our full attention toward assisting the athletes of Bamyan. We collaborated with international governments, volunteer veterans, and intelligence agencies to find pathways out of Afghanistan,” Sturgulewski explains. “When the dust finally settled, the soul of our film had to be reimagined. The people at its center were now fragmented and displaced. It took quite some time to uncover meaning in the rubble of their scattered stories. But slowly, a picture of deep resilience began to emerge, the scope of which would have been impossible to anticipate years before.”
Sturgulewski continues, “The project evolved from an upbeat short film into a feature-length documentary that I now feel is intensely bittersweet. It is a celebration of a community’s dream for peace, and the fragile hope that remains after the realities of conflict … We hope the film can be a catalyst for empathy in the narrative around refugees from all countries — as well as toward the many people still living in Afghanistan amid deep uncertainty.”
“Champions of the Golden Valley” is part of the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival, March 26–30 at the Capawock Theater in Vineyard Haven and the Grange Hall in West Tisbury. For information and tickets, visit tmvff.org/azmvff25.
