University of York Music Press

Set against the backdrop of the drug war in Afghanistan, Laila at the Bridge is the story of an Afghan woman working against all odds to care for the thousands of men and women addicted to heroin who live under an infamous bridge in the heart of Kabul.

Filmmaker Elissa Sylvia Mirzaei, born in Pennsylvania, has lived in Afghanistan for eight years. She speaks fluent Dari and is drawn to intimate stories that reveal the complexity, beauty and tragedies of Afghanistan from an Afghan perspective. Shocked by the number of drug addicts using openly on the streets, Elissa felt helpless witnessing passersby step over the huddled and skeletal masses of dying junkies. She and her husband, Gulistan Mirzaei, founders of Mirzaei Films, met Laila in 2012 and were inspired to make their first feature-length documentary, Laila at the Bridge. Elissa had worked on the BBC World Service documentary The Killing of Farkhunda, which aired in August 2015. The Mirzaeis' first film, Stranded In Kabul, was one of 10 films from across Asia selected for Al Jazeera English’s Viewfinder Asia workshop in South Korea and was broadcast on AJE in 2013. Their second film, Farewell Kabul, premiered on AJE in 2014.

Toccata Classics released The Rosegarden of Light in 2016 and it is receiving a great deal of international critical acclaim. Tracks have been used on three films - The Staging Post (Australia), The King of Kabura (Afghanistan) and now Laila at the Bridge (Afghanistan/USA).

https://www.thefix.com/meet-the-woman-who-is-saving-heroin-…