STAR OF OSCAR MOVIE SELLS GUM ON A KABUL STREET CORNER

   While most of the stars of this year's Oscar-nominated films are doing the rounds of Hollywood's red carpets, parties and "swag rooms", one, 14-year-old Fawad Mohammadi, spends his time on a street corner in Kabul, hawking chewing gum and tourist maps to passersby.   

Fawad (right) and Jawa

 Fawad, who stars in the Oscar-nominated film Buzkashi Boys, has his ticket to the Oscars ceremony on February 24 but no means of getting to Los Angeles.

  So a fund-raising effort has been launched to raise enough money to bring Fawad and hopefully his young co-star Jawanmard Paiz to the award ceremony. Any money left over will go into a college fund for Fawad so that he can one day leave Kabul's Chicken Street behind.   

   Fawad was discovered on the street corner where he spends his days and chosen to star in Buzkashi Boys, a film set against the background of contemporary Afghanistan and the national sport of Buzkashi---a brutal game of horse polo played with a dead goat. The film follows two best friends, a defiant blacksmith's son (Fawad) and a charismatic street urchin (Jawa) as they struggle to survive in one of the most war-torn countries on Earth. 

   Filmed entirely on location in Kabul, by an alliance of Afghan and international filmmakers, Buzkashi Boys has been nominated in the best live action short film category.  

You can read more on the website   www.buzkashiboys.com/