A UKRAINIAN ORPHAN AND AN AFGHAN-AMERICAN ACTOR
by Mike Moffett
Veteran Hollywood actor Fahim Fazli knows how to cry in front of a camera, but the tears he recently shed in front of his television set were real.
Fazli was watching video of a Ukrainian boy bawling his eyes out as this victim of Russian aggression crossed the border alone into Poland. The young lad was now a refugee, not knowing if or when he’d ever return home. The poignancy of the moment struck a chord with Fazli, as earlier Russian aggression had once turned him into a refugee. Hence the authentic tears.
Fazli was 12 when the Soviet Union invaded his native Afghanistan in 1979. His mother was a mid-wife for Afghan President Haffizullah Amin. After Amin was murdered by the Russians, Fazli’s mother Fahima was alerted that she was on a Communist hit-list. With no time to lose, Fahima fled the Afghan capital of Kabul, along with Fazli’s two sisters, Almara and Mina, and a brother, Suhail. Fahim stayed behind with his father Jamil and another brother, Hares, hoping to also escape later.
Sadly, it would be years before Fahim learned of his mother’s fate. In the meantime, he, his dad, and his brother adapted to the Soviet occupation.
“But we didn’t call them Soviets,” recalled Fazli. “We just called them Russians.”
Young Fahim engaged the Russian soldiers and even learned some Russian, all the better to eventually counter the occupiers. His linguistic gifts would later serve him well.
By 1983 the time came for Fahim, Jamil and Hares to escape as well. A Russian noose was tightening around the rest of the Fazli clan, and so Jamil decided to try find out what happened to the rest of the family—from whom they’d heard nothing for four years. Dodging Russian patrols and attack helicopters, the three Afghans, aided by a guide named Abdul, made a harrowing escape east through the Hindu Kush mountains. Eventually they got to Pakistan where they joined millions of expatriate Afghan refugees.
They shared contact information with the American Embassy in Islamabad and pleaded with officials to help them find Fahima and the two sisters and brother. Were they alive or dead? In Pakistan, India, or some other land?
Soon the truth was discovered. Fahima, Suhail, Almara, and Mina were alive! They’d made it to America where they were told that Fahim, Jamil, and Hares were dead. A magical phone call reunited the family emotionally, if not physically.
A real reunion would take a couple more years. President Ronald Reagan fought to open doors for Afghan refugees and in 1985 the Fazli family reconnected for a joyous celebration in Virginia.
“It all taught me the most important lesson I would ever learn,” recalled Fahim. “Have faith. Never give up.”
Eventually the Fazlis moved to California where Fahim learned English, studied American history, and became a citizen. He was now positioned to pursue his dream of acting. Against all odds he eventually earned a membership in the Screen Actors Guild and embarked on a Hollywood career that would see him involved in over 50 film and TV projects, while working with Hollywood’s biggest stars.
Have faith. Never give up.
Fahim was initially typecast as a bad guy. Movie buffs will recall him roughing up Robert Downey Jr. in an Afghan cave in the first Ironman movie. Many more rolls were to follow, to include American Sniper with Bradley Cooper and the Academy Award winning Argo with Ben Affleck. He’d later move on to more sympathetic roles, such as Tariq in Rock the Kasbah, which also included Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, and Kate Hudson.
But it was while cultural-technical advisor for Charlie Wilson’s War that Fahim’s life took a dramatic turn. The movie was based on the true-life story of a Texas congressman who arranged for the secret funding of an Afghan resistance movement that eventually expelled the Russians from Afghanistan. That project allowed him to get to know Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Ned Beaty, Amy Adams and others. But it was Charlie Wilson himself who encouraged Fahim to return to his native land to help in a new fight against Taliban extremists, against whom American forces were engaged in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
And thus it came to pass that Fazli qualified as a certified interpreter so as to return to Afghanistan to translate for U.S. forces. At age 43 Fahim put on an American uniform, the only Screen Actors Guild member to leave Hollywood to go into harm’s way after 9/11, following in the footsteps of Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart and other luminaries who’d left Tinseltown to fight for their country in another war, against similarly evil enemies.
Eschewing a safe job translating for high-ranking officers and officials in the relative safety of Kabul, Fazli asked for the most dangerous job in Afghanistan, serving as an interpreter with the United State Marines in volatile Helmand Province. There the charismatic actor was quite effective at bringing together Afghans and Americans. Fahim made people laugh, which was an anathema to the extreme fundamentalists. So in 2010 the Taliban put a price on his head.
That’s when I met Fahim at a Marine outpost in Delaram, in northern Helmand Province. On special USMC assignment as a lieutenant colonel, I’d heard of Fazli’s exploits and met him at a special event involving the district governor. Fahim and I exchanged cards and stayed in touch.
That summer Fazli and his battalion (Third Battalion, Fourth Marine Regiment) returned safely to America. Remarkably, 3/4 did not lose a single man during its many months in Afghanistan—thanks in part to Fahim. I eventually caught up to him in California and we discussed doing a biography that would do justice to his remarkable journey. Hollywood’s top military actor and advisor, Dale Dye, saw potential in our proposed project and his Warriors Publishing Group made Fahim’s dream of a book a reality—FAHIM SPEAKS: A Warrior-Actors Odyssey from Afghanistan to Hollywood and Back. Our book earned critical acclaim and won the Gold Medal for “Top Biography” from the Military Writers Society of America. It inspired several script adaptations and Fahim’s latest dream is that his story will become a movie, thus bringing his inspiring real-life journey full circle, back to Hollywood.
All of which brings us back to Russian aggression and the terrified young Ukrainian boy, now a refugee.
“Seeing that little boy all alone and crying as he crossed the border gave me such flashbacks,” said Fahim. “Where was his mother? Had the Russians killed her? I could so relate to his anguish. My heart broke.”
But Fazli’s emotional distress also reinforced his profound gratitude that fate led him to reunite with his family in a safe country where amazing dreams of freedom—and Hollywood—came true.
“I love America,” said Fazli. “That’s why I wanted to give back and that’s why I put on a uniform. We have such a beautiful country here that is hard to truly appreciate without having spent time in other lands.
Like war-torn Afghanistan. Or embattled Ukraine.
The little Ukrainian boy’s tears of anguish prompted Fahim’s flashbacks and his own tears, tears that rolled down his cheeks and into a beard that is now flecked with grey.
But Fahim’s own journey gives hope that someday there might also be tears of joy for the likes of the little boy—such as were shed when his own family reunited in America.
“Have faith. Never give up.”
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(A former professor and retired Marine Corps officer, Mike Moffett is a author and columnist. He is currently serving as a State Representative in the New Hampshire legislature.)
Fahim Fazli, Mike Moffett, and Joe Kenney atop Mt. Washington, which has been considered as a film site for a Hindu Kush escape scene for Fahim's film project.
