Summary

Film-maker Richard Stanley and his German cameraman Immo Horn left Britain in 1988, fleeing the cash-starved backwaters of the British film industry where Stanley had been miserable making music videos.

They joined a UN relief mission to Afghanistan, but soon realised that, in such an official capacity, they were unlikely to visit anywhere unseen by Western eyes and the Western news media. So they jumped ship, enlisting with the Mujahedin and touring the country with their cameras. But during the battle of Jalalabad in 1989 Horn was seriously injured, and Stanley was forced to abandon shooting and ship his friend across the border to safety. These photographs capture this unique journey.

Biography - Immo Horn

Immo Horn began making experimental super-8 films as a student at the Free University of Berlin before moving to London in 1988 where he studied anthropology with the Radical Anthropology Group. In London he met Richard Stanley and worked as set designer, and occasionally cameraman and special effects on music videos. During this time they met Carlos Mavroleon, who was at the time fighting with the Afghan mujahedin, and accompanied him back to Afghanistan to shoot ‘Voice of the Moon’ the following year.

Immo Horn went on to film many other documentaries and short films as a cameraman, and also produced and directed several short documentaries and children’s programs for television. He is currently setting up his own company and has several documentaries in production and is also writing children’s stories.