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Jaan (2025)

Lena Mohammed

Profile picture of Lena Mohammed
Afghan-British filmmaker and journalist Lena Mohammed, based in London, explores stories of identity, resilience, and truth. Combining a journalistic eye with a cinematic sensibility, she crafts research-driven narratives that resonate across platforms.With extensive experience in freelance and contracted journalism — including contributions to LiveProjectSolutions and her recent work with the International Building Press of Journalists (IBP) — Lena brings depth, curiosity, and precision to every project.Passionate about the power of sound, she strives to create synaesthetic experiences that blur the line between hearing and seeing, fact and feeling.
Afghan-British filmmaker and journalist Lena Mohammed, based in London, explores st...
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In “Jaan”, the filmmaker uses her mother’s forbidden cassettes and dance to tell the stories and show the spirit of Afghan women across generations. Having grown up far from her birthplace, Lena is drawn back to the intimate VHS and Hi8 cassettes her mother recorded — tapes of Afghan women dancing, celebrating, and expressing joy even amidst war. As she revisits these archives and begins creating her own spoken word poetry and movement, she starts to bridge the gap between her diasporic present and the cultural inheritance she longs to reclaim.

Shot with a blend of stylised dance sequences and poetic, reflective imagery, the film immerses viewers in Lena’s internal world. Ambient soundscapes, personal voiceover, and the tactility of analogue footage create a sensory portrait of identity in motion. Through her connection with her Afghan dance teacher, Aruzu, Lena finds a contemporary echo of the women captured on her mother’s tapes — a living link between past and present.

Intimate, lyrical, and emotionally resonant, "Jaan" is both a universal meditation on belonging and a unique exploration of how memory, movement, and art become vessels for cultural survival. It is a film about reclaiming body, soul, and life — and offering them back to the women, the homeland, and the heritage that shaped her.

Final work

Jaan | Trailer

Through my mother’s tapes, my Afghan dance teacher, and my own journey, “Jaan” explores what it means to be an Afghan woman across generations.

  • A group of Afghan women smile and clap in vibrant, colorful clothing during a joyful celebration, captured from my mother’s tapes.
  • A wide shot of the Afghan mountains, captured from my mother’s tapes in 2007.
  • A wide shot of council estate buildings in London.
  • A close-up of my contributor’s hand as henna is being applied.
  • A close-up of my contributor, Aruzu, looking directly at a projected image of her younger self dancing, the projector’s glow illuminating her face.
  • Poster for my doc showing two 1997 cassette stills, Aruzu resting on someone in an Afghan burqa, and a projector shining upward toward the images.
  • A close-up of my father’s face, showing emotion.
  • My mother watches the projection of her tapes, mirrors behind her, while I also look at the projection.
  • Me and my mother sit together with my father beside us on the sofa, holding each other’s hands and looking at each other.

Research and process

If You Silence Us We Will Dance In Your Silence

An Afghan dance project created in collaboration with my dance teacher, who is also a contributor in my documentary. The project explores traditional and contemporary Afghan movement, using dance as a way to reconnect with cultural memory, identity, and community.

  • Behind-the-scenes of the family scene in Jaan, showing me and my parents together.
  • Behind-the-scenes of Jaan’s henna and food scene, showing me pouring tea and capturing the making of the moment.
  • Behind-the-scenes of Jaan’s henna and food scene.

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Jaan (2025)

In “Jaan”, the filmmaker uses her mother’s forbidden cassettes and dance to tell the stories and show the spirit of Afghan women across generations. Having grown up far from her birthplace, Lena is drawn back to the intimate VHS and Hi8 casse...

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