The Taliban Five

Now that the Taliban have retaken Afghanistan, what will their administration be like? In this exclusive film, including an unprecedented interview with Muhammad Nabi Omari, one of the notorious ‘Taliban Five’, we see how the destinies of these five men summed up 20 years of war in Afghanistan. And how these same men will probably shape the next Taliban government.

They were dubbed the ‘Taliban Five’, five high-ranking members of the Taliban government believed to be “the hardest of the hard-core”. When America invaded Afghanistan in 2001 they were sent straight to Guantanamo. They spent the next 13 years there, “too innocent to charge, too dangerous to release”, before being finally exchanged for the American soldier, Bowe Bergdahl. Five years later, they formed part of the Taliban delegation during the Doha peace talks. 

With unprecedented access, we trace their incredible journey from terrorists to prisoners, prisoners to bargaining chips and bargaining chips to peace makers. We interview one of them, Muhammad Nabi Omari, and hear from key actors of those past 20 years, including former French President François Hollande, retired General David Petraeus and a former Taliban minister. We also speak to many of the people who came across them: their families, former cellmate in Guantanamo, the general in charge of their arrival there and others who have been victims of their actions. 

It’s a story that tells us everything about the blindness and contradictions of the West’s intervention in Afghanistan.