Diplomatic Rebel

Nilab Totakhil, Lea Glob, Karen Waltorp, Asma Safi, Mursal Khosrawi, Sama Sadat Ben Haddou, Nilab Totakhil, Karen Waltorp, Asma Safi, Mursal Khosrawi & Sama Sadat Ben Haddou / Andreas Dalsgaard / Denmark & Afghanistan

Diplomatic Rebel is an RPG for Smartphone and Tablet. You play the 16-year-old ’Ariana’ navigating the Afghan and Danish cultures, earning both Rebel points and Diplomatic points along the way as you create a space for YOU without burning bridges.

You are invited to a party at your Danish high school and badly want to participate, but you need your Afghan parents’ consent. In Diplomatic Rebel – an RPG for Smartphone and Tablet – you play the 16-year-old ’Ariana’ who got a ‘no’ from her mom straight away. This is where the game starts: To attend the party with your friends, you need to turn a ‘no’ into a ‘yes’ – A dilemma that might seem simple but, as you will figure out along the way, is more complex than appears at first sight. You now have to navigate different expectations and norms to earn points in the game. You also move across two worlds; the physical and the metaphysical. The portal between the two is an Afghan carpet, which you get transported to when your magic lajwar amulet lights up. In the metaphysical world you obtain wisdom in the form of globes that light up – these globes of wisdom helps you to understand and navigate your physical world – but you must choose the right one. You get help from your Bibi Jaan – grandmother – and other helpers along the way. You are a success in the game IF you get permission to go to the party in a way where you’ve also reached a better understanding with your family as well as classmates. You will also have learned something about yourself, your roots and your everyday world. When you’ve earned both Rebel points and Diplomatic points, you’ve managed to create a space for YOU without burning bridges. The physical world is monochrome in the beginning of the game, but as you collect colourful globes in the metaphysical realm and gain wisdom, you can put some color to your everyday world and life, integrating the beauty of your diverse backgrounds.

Nilab Totakhil

Developing the game: Diplomatic Rebel. Co-director and member of the ARTlife film collective.

Biography

Nilab Totakhil is a teacher, a Teach First Alumnae, and a member of the ARTlife Film Collective. She holds a Cand.scient.soc from Lund University, Sweden and a BA in Education. She actively combines her academic background with her pedagogies and teaching in her everyday work life. She strives to give all children a chance to gain an education regardless of background and social status. This motivation comes from her own background as an Afghan refugee. Totakhil is the co-author of Why Care: Voluntary work, Contemporary Islam (2021) and has volunteered as an intern for the UNESCO in India and for the NGO Wale Wale Kenya.

Lea Glob

Developing the game: Diplomatic Rebel."the documentary filmmaker", invited into the collective in 2020. Part is mostly to direct, conceptualise and film/ Co-director and member of the ARTlife film col

Biography

Lea Glob is an award-winning director and cinematographer. Her filmography counts ‘My Father Kasper Højhat’ (2011), ‘Olmo and the Seagull’ (2015, co-directed with Petra Costa), Her documentary “Venus” (2017), co-directed by Mette Carla Albrechtsen, was also published by the Danish publishing house Gyldendal as a book. In her forthcoming film ‘Apolonia,’ Lea is yet again at the crux of stories based in the magnificent chaos of everyday life. In the same vein, ARTlife was an invitation to use her craft to help a young generation give form to their stories that are not often seen on the big screen.

Karen Waltorp

Developing the game: Diplomatic Rebel. Director and member of the ARTlife film collective. She was the Co-Principal Investigator on ARTlife 2017-2020, founding the ARTlife Film Collective.

Biography

Karen Waltorp is associate professor, Ph.d. and award-winning filmmaker. As Co-Principal Investigator on ARTlife she developed the methodology of ‘research-through-collaborative-filmmaking’ resulting in co-authored articles and book chapters and has transformed into an independent Film Collective. She is currently the Principal Investigator on DigiSAt - Digital Everyday Lives Far From Silicon Valley. She is director of "Manenberg" (2010), which won New Nordic Voices and RAI Film Prize, and author of "Why Muslim Women and Smartphones: Mirror Images" (2020) "Energy Futures" (2022) and "An Anthropology of Futures and Technologies" (2020).

Asma Safi

Developing the game: Diplomatic Rebel. Co-director and member of the ARTlife film collective.

Biography

Asma Mohammadzai Safi holds a BSc in Economics and Business Administration and a MSc in Brand Management and Marketing Communication from the University of Southern Denmark. She is a videographer, photographer, and writer, and has traveled to her native Afghanistan, capturing its landscapes and people through her lens. Safi is the co-author of ‘Shared’ (The World in a Cup of Chai). She has been a Career Ambassador at RIO University of Southern Denmark, and a volunteer and project manager at FS2S: From Street 2 School, raising funds for street children in Afghanistan to go to school.

Mursal Khosrawi

Developing the game: Diplomatic Rebel. Co-director and member of the ARTlife film collective.

Biography

Mursal Khosrawi holds an MA (cand.scient.pol) from the University of Copenhagen’s Faculty of Social Sciences. She is a public opinion maker and a regular panelist on P1 Morgen, Radio4, and Danish National Radio’s ‘Debatten’ sharing her views on issues related to inequality, minority issues, refugees, immigration and integration policies in Denmark. She is the current President of the think tank Handletanken, which works towards equality with a focus on gender. She previously worked at the Danish Refugee Council and is a regular contributor to RÆSON and Altinget.

Sama Sadat Ben Haddou

Member of the ARTlife film collective.She is not part of developing the game: Diplomatic Rebel, but her life experience and research as part of the collective since 2018 has inspired the game as well.

Biography

Sama Sadat Ben Haddou holds a MA in International Development Studies and Global Studies from Roskilde University, Denmark. She is the cofounder and former president of NGO TakeMyHand and currently she is the President of MINO Denmark. She has written about the various understandings of gender across donors/recipients in (post)conflict areas and worked with the UN in Kosova. She is the co-author of Digital Diaspora in a Media Ecology: Afghan Women and the Case of Farkhunda, to be published in the forthcoming Routledge anthology Diasporic Political Communication: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives.