A Young Lead Actor’s Journey from Kabul to Oscars

 

The 14-year-old was working the streets for a living at an age when most of the stars he will meet were vying for roles in nativity plays.

Living in one of the shanty suburbs of the sprawling Afghan capital Kabul, he was too poor to start school, and at seven joined a gaggle of urchins hawking maps and chewing gum to foreigners.

Film stardom seemed an unlikely prospect for the skinny street boy, as he used his piercing grey-green eyes and ready smile to part dollars from soft-hearted foreigners.

Read more