The Dominion, March 2001 - “Paperbacks” column. Reviewer David Larsen
New Zealand photographer Victoria Ginn was invited to Afghanistan in 1978 as the personal guest of a government official. When she refused to sleep with him, she was accused of drug smuggling and imprisoned. Then the government was deposed, the country fell to pieces and any hope for escape began to seem like a mirage. Freedom’s Edge (Hazard Press $39.95) is the story of her journey, imprisonment and eventual release, illustrated with a selection of rare photos saved from the Afghan censors.
Ginn adopts a compressed, almost poetic style in the narrative, never saying more than she needs to, and managing the difficult feat of conveying her younger self’s almost wilful naivety and her older self’s more seasoned insights simultaneously. A powerful study of the psychology of imprisonment, as well as a portrait – in words and images – of Afghanistan in the last days before the Soviet invasion and the rise of the Taleban
North and South Magazine, February 2001. New Zealand Books by Chris Bourke
Most New Zealanders have setbacks during their OE; few come back with horror stories to match their slide shows. Freedom’s Edge (Hazard Press $39.95) is Victoria Ginn’s gripping account of what happens when an adventure goes off the rails. It has taken over 20 years for Ginn to be able to face writing about what occurred: her book is more a prison saga than a travel memoir.
As a naïve but gutsy 24-year old photographer, Ginn was fascinated by the romance and culture of the East, and in 1978 set off for Afghanistan. On route, she wrote in her diary, “Awandering wild and free, no solid walls imprison me”. The words would come back to haunt her.
Appalled by the brutality and danger she discovered there, Ginn was about to leave, only to get arrested at the airport. That’s when she learnt about the corruption that pollutes the romance. Imprisoned on a trumped up drugs charge, she gets weak from disease and despair as she tries to get the charges dropped, her passport and cameras returned before her return ticket expires.
Besides the scary Midnight Express saga of securing her freedom, this is the moving story of an ingenuous but feisty Westerner struggling to survive in a hostile, alien culture. It also provides a window into Afghanistan before the Russian invasion and fundamentalist Taleban coup closed it as a tourist destination. Her portfolio of photos smuggled out could be from an early travel classic such as The Road to Oxiana and the story itself would be a great film
Ontario Film Commission
Comments based on a 27 page Film Treatment of “Freedom’s Edge” submitted to the Ontario Board Canada
“In my humble opinion, the draft screenplay/outline contains all the ingredients for a riveting feature film: a strong central character (the fact that it is a woman enhances the drama and point of view even more so) an exotic setting full of potential both visually and dramatically; all the elements essential to a strong narrative, romance, adventure, action, conflict/tension. I have no hesitation in endorsing this project for further development. In fact were this a Canadian project, I have no doubt we would provide financing to allow the authors to take it to first or second draft.
To repeat myself; Freedom’s Edge has all the potential of being a fascinating entertained and thus commercially viable screenplay.”
S Wayne Clarkson
Chairman/CEO
Ontario
Australian Film Commission
“As I read the treatment the story was happening on the screen for me – it had a clean dramatic through-line (or spine) to it, a constantly developing story in every sentence, of events and people, being, doing, happening (and with an implication of the potential for a subtle and layered from of drama) unravelling and revealing more and more in a building cumulative dramatic process.
My eye constantly moved forward with the film wanting – and needing – to know what would happen next…
I can see the potential for a really interesting film and with lots of ideas that could be the residual affects of it… In the meantime; I would recommend this for funding to at least first draft stage” (abbreviated)
Moya Wood
Feature Film Assessor
Australian Film Commission
Telefilm Canada – January 26 1998
RE: FREEDOM”S EDGE by Victoria Ginn
It’s a fascinating and moving read. It’s such a reminder of the days when many people travelled in those wonderfully exotic parts of the world, and freely and easily spent all sorts of time (for all sorts of reasons) in Kabul. It was all somehow OK and adventurous and dangerous at once. Those days are certainly over. So it’s full of a very real nostalgia and sense of place. She has a real ability to travel back in her own memories and to create vivid and crisp scenes and to let us see through her eyes.
I thought that the most intriguing parts were the jail sections and would liked even more details about those experiences. She was able to bring other women to life, she has a gift for description (very like photographic sketches). The intricacies of the Afghani judicial system remain a maze of confusions as they are. It is hard to follow the twists and turns of her various setbacks and negotiations and I’m sure the real story was even more convoluted and unfathomable.
The treatment is like a long diary/journal, and that is why it’s a fascinating and credible read. Her experiences and observations are always interesting and there is a great deal of natural drama built into her very serious predicament….
Anne MacKenzie
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