Langlands & Bell

Zardad’s Dog

2003

Video (DVD) colour, sound, 12 mins.

Zardad’s Dog is one of three works forming the trilogy The House of Osama bin Laden. The film was shot by Langlands & Bell at the Supreme Court in Kabul at the first capital trial after the fall of the Taliban in October 2002. The accused Addullah Shah, was known as ‘Zardad’s Dog’ because he savaged people with his teeth before he murdered them.

The dramatic range of emotions expressed by participants in the court room transcends language. Viewers are left to make their own judgements. Does Shah’s guilt justify his barbaric execution or simply contribute further to the immense catalogue of suffering and abuse endured by the Afghan people over more than thirty years?

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Commissioned by the Trustees of the Imperial War Museum, London

Edited by Richard Wilding and Langlands & Bell

Zardad’s Dog at Tate Britain

Zardad’s Dog Index on Censorship

Turner Prize 2004