AK13 — Music Video

This wasn't a music video when it started.

For two years, I filmed AK13 with my 90s Sony Handycam, without knowing what the footage would eventually become. Through Afghan Women on the Run, we had helped these two Afghan rappers find safety in Spain after fleeing a future marked by persecution and war. Over time, they became friends.

The camera was simply there. Recording rehearsals, conversations, small victories and everyday moments as they rebuilt their lives far from home. Then came the Paris Olympics, where one of the members became the first Afghan woman to compete in Olympic breaking. That felt like the moment to tell their story.

With the support of Yo Vi al Yeti, Petra Garmon and Good Company, we travelled to Madrid and combined those years of intimate Handycam footage with a more contemporary street-style shoot. GoPros, VHS textures, professional cameras, breakdance, Madrid's streets and fragments of a new life all came together in the same film.

The song moves between two worlds: gratitude for the life they've built and grief for the country they'll never be able to return to. It's a story about exile, friendship, feminism, resistance and the strange feeling of loving a place you can no longer call home.

Some projects are planned. Others simply grow over time.