The Last Ambassador
The Afghan ambassador in Vienna, Manizha Bakhtari, has found herself in a bizarre situation since the Taliban took power: she represents a country whose old government has fled and whose new Taliban government is not recognized internationally. Despite financial and logistical isolation, Manizha Bakhtari is defying the Taliban to continue her fight for the rights of Afghan women and girls as an ambassador. Through her ‘Daughters’ programme, she enables secret education to Afghan schoolgirls while organising political resistance against the Taliban as an ambassador. Under increasingly difficult conditions, she becomes one of the most important international spokespersons for the women of Afghanistan, true to her motto “peace is not the absence of war, but the presence of justice”.
Cast
- Manizha Bakthari
The Last Ambassador
Natalie Halla
- Documentary
- Production Country / Year
- Austria 2025
- Language
- prs., engl. OF m. engl. UT
- Format
- DCP, Color, 82min
1.85:1, Discrete 5.1
Director & Crew
Natalie Halla
Born in 1975 in Linz/Austria. Studied Law and Translation (Russian, Spanish) in Graz/Austria. Autodidactic independent documentary filmmaker. Active as a director, producer, cinematographer and screenwriter.
Filmography
| 2005 | Ich träume von deinem Leben | Kurzfilm | |
| 2010 | Drogenmütter | Dokumentarfilm | |
| 2011 | Gaelle | Dokumentarfilm | |
| 2012 | Separated | Dokumentarfilm | |
| 2014 | Ein Spiel der Gene | Dokumentarfilm | |
| 2015 | Wurzelkinder | Dokumentarfilm | |
| 2017 | Life in Four Elements | Dokumentarfilm | |
| 2018 | Nowhere | Dokumentarfilm | |
| 2021 | Der Albtraum der Schamanen | Dokumentarfilm | |
| 2025 | Die letzte Botschafterin | Dokumentarfilm | 2025 |
“Manizha Bakhtari has been openly critical of the Taliban from the very beginning, so she has really put herself in the firing line. There was neither money for the Embassy nor any direct contact with the Taliban, and although there was a modest number of blank passports, they eventually ran out. They had to move out of the prominent premises on Vienna's Ringstrasse because they couldn’t afford it any longer. From the very start I was actually witnessing a ship sinking: not only the Embassy but the entire country as well."
- Writer
- Natalie Halla
- Director of Photography
- Judith Benedikt
- Editor
- Birgit Foerster
- Music Composer
- Karwan Marouf
- Producer
- Natalie Halla
- Peter Drössler
- Arash T. Riahi
- Sabine Gruber