One’s own room Inside Kabul

In french

  • Show
  • Installation

Caroline Gillet and Kubra Khademi

Afghanistan – France / Creation Festival d’Avignon 2025

This experience immerses the audience in an Afghan living room, where they encounter a young woman cut off from the outside world, her existence wavering between despair and resistance. Through her, the audience is invited to experience the boundaries of confinement.

One’s own room Inside Kabul, Caroline Gillet and Kubra Khademi, 2025 © Christophe Raynaud de Lage / Festival d’Avignon

Presentation

One’s own room Inside Kabul is an invitation to step into the living room of a young Afghan woman. There, after taking off their shoes and sitting down among the cushions and traditional dishes, the audience meets Raha, isolated from the outside world after the Taliban’s rise to power, Raha shares her thoughts, her desires and her fears. The audience finds itself trapped alongside her, as it listens to the story of her daily life. Conceived by Kubra Khademi and Caroline Gillet, with a video creation produced by an anonymous team from Kabul, this visual and sound-based experience in a confined space evokes the fragility of everyday life for women in Afghanistan and serves as a reminder of how quickly fundamental freedom can collapse – and not just within Afghanistan’s borders.  An immersive project that turns personal testimony into a powerful call for collective reflection.

تغمر هذه التجربة الجمهور في صالون أفغاني حيث يكتشف امرأة شابة مقطوعة عن العالم الخارجي، يتأرجح وجودها بين اليأس والمقاومة. يدعى الجمهور إلى رؤية حدود الحبس. 

interview with Caroline Gillet et Kubra Khademi

Distribution

Text and sound Raha
Direction
Caroline Gillet and Kubra Khademi 
Sound narrative Caroline Gillet and Fréderic Changenet, along with Anna Buy
Scenography and visual installation Kubra Khademi
Video anonymous videographers and editors in Kabul
Lighting design Juliette Delfosse
Mixing Frédéric Changenet and Pierre Langlet, and additional sounds from Kaboul Benazer
General stage management François Lewyllie
Off voice in French Sofia Lesaffre
Production Maria-Carmela Mini

An immersive experience adapted from the original FRANCE INTER podcasts Inside Kabul and Outside Kabul by Caroline Gillet.

Production

Production Latitudes Prod (Lille)
Co-production Festival d’Avignon, Théâtre de la Ville (Paris), Festival d’Automne à Paris, Les Halles de Schaerbeek (Bruxelles), Festival euro-scène Leipzig, Théâtre Molière Scène Nationale Archipel de Thau, Radio France 

With the support DRAC Hauts-de-France and Open Society Foundations via l’Afghanistan Cultural Fund and CNC - Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée
Artist residency support Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains, La Ménagerie de Verre (Paris), Maison Folie Wazemmes - Ville de Lille, Bazaar St So (Lille)
Acknowledgments Matthieu Beauval, Thierry Cabrera, Anne Fontanesi, Juliette Prouteau, Behishta Rahmaty, Florence Sarfati et les équipes de France Inter, l’École d’Art du Beauvaisis et les céramistes Amandine Brunet et Valérie Dubuisson

Performances in partnership with France Médias Monde

Practical infos

Pictures

Read more

And…

Afghan Marathon

Film selections by Kubra Khademi and Caroline Gillet
  • Cinematographic territories

Tickets temporarily unavailable. Go to the ticket office at the Cloître Saint-Louis at 10am or to the venue 1 hour before the performance.