Director: Travis Beard
Producer: Leslie Knott & Clementine Malpas

Rockabul is a coming of age documentary which deals with youth identity and freedom of expression in Afghanistan. It shows the strength of the human spirit as Afghanistan’s first and only metal band called District Unknown reach out to the disenchanted Afghan youth, the expat community and eventually the outside world.

Against the odds and a backdrop of a conservative Islamic republic, the Western war-machine and the opaque foreign aid industry, we see a women only music event succeed. But because of this grassroots movement’s direct connection to foreign presence they are targeted. By challenging conflict with culture, District Unknown literally put themselves and their fans in the firing line. We watch as the movement is seeded, harvested and ultimately destroyed by the conservative society that surrounds them.

Captured by Australian filmmaker, Travis Beard who lived in Kabul for seven years, the film features a side of Afghan literarily shown in Western media, that existed on the precipitous of this fragile city and the fractured country that is Afghanistan today.