Afghanistan: The Wounded Land

PBS: UK PREMIERE Tuesday 2 – Friday 5 May at 8.40pm

Its strategic importance as a gateway for trade and migration between East and West has ensured Afghanistan a complex, turbulent history as, repeatedly, its territory saw the playing out of local and imperial rivalries.

Narrated by Khaled Hosseini, this four-part series examines six decades of modern Afghan history through the eyes of those who witnessed the country’s tempestuous national narrative unfolding. Tracing events from the 1960s, when a society divided between a Westernised elite and a traditional, largely impoverished majority was engulfed in a communist revolution, through the ill- fated Soviet invasion of 1979 and its chaotic aftermath, the rise of the Taliban and their overthrow and resurgence after 9/11, the series also gives voice to the future hopes of Afghanistan’s resilient populace.