Haunted Burqa

Haunted Burqa is an experimental documentary by Hellen Rose, Performance Artist and Musician living in Jalalabad Afghanistan. A deep and moving autobiographical short film experiencing a day in the life under the burqa for an Australian national. From a suicide bombing to singing and creating a musical, magical homophonic 'ecstatic' with the 100 year old Sufi Shaman in the garden .

Hellen was accepted into the Actors Course at Victorian College Of The Arts in 1983 and has a BVA Hons, majoring in Performance Art from Sydney College of the Arts (1997) and a MTeach (2000) in both Drama and Art from the University of Sydney. She was awarded the NSW Premiers Award in 2014 for her work in Afghanistan. Hellen Rose, has worked as a performance artist/singer/writer/actor for nearly 30years. She has recorded and performed with famous Australian musicians such as Tex Perkins (The Cruel Sea, Beasts Of Bourbon), Doc Neeson (The Angels), Mick Harvey, (Birthday Party) She was the Principal Actor and Assistant Director of Lindzee Smyth’s (Australian Players Group Founding member) Nightshift Theatre Asylum in Sydney 1995-1997. She was a co-founder of the artists run studio and venue known as The Gunnery in Woolloomooloo Bay 1985-1991.

She is co-founder of The Yellow House Jalalabad 2012- with Artist/Film Maker George Gittoes. She is Assistant Director and Actor on 5 Pashtun Drama’s made in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Co-Writer on ‘The Simorgh’ Directed by Neha Alia Khan, as well as Actor. Hellen is the first European woman to appear in Pashtun Films. In 2017 on International Women’s Day she was the first woman to sing to a mixed gender public in Afghanistan in 80 years at the Governors Palace Jalalabad. She is Assistant Director/Actor/Musician on ‘Love City Jalalabad’ and Music Director on the award winning and AFI finalist 2016, ‘Snow Monkey’, both films directed by her partner George Gittoes. Hellen was Co Producer and Music Director on ‘White Light’ screened on the ABC 2020.