Return to Transcripts main page

The Amanpour Hour

Interview With "The New York Times" Mark Landler; Interview With Bloomberg's Stephanie Flanders; Interview With Actress Cate Blanchett; Interview With Director Alfonso Cuaron; 23 Years Since U.S. Toppled Taliban In Afghanistan; Interview With "Blitz" Director Steve McQueen. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired October 12, 2024 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:33]

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello everyone. And welcome to THE AMANPOUR HOUR.

Here's where we're headed this week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Less than a month before America heads to the polls, "The New York Times" Mark Landler and Bloomberg's Stephanie Flanders join me to discuss how disinformation from abroad and within is shaping the election.

Then --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know who Catherine really is.

The world needs to know the truth.

AMANPOUR: "Disclaimer", a psychological thriller starring Cate Blanchett. I sit down with the legendary actress and the director Oscar winner Alfonso Cuaron.

Plus --

MARZIA HAMIDI, AFGHANISTAN ATHLETE: I will fight until I win against his people.

AMANPOUR: The fight against gender apartheid, how an Afghan woman living in exile in Paris practices taekwondo to assert her autonomy.

And finally, World War II through a child's eyes. Oscar-winning director Steve McQueen joins me to discuss his new film, "Blitz".

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Welcome to the program, everyone. I'm Christiane Amanpour in London.

It's probably no exaggeration to say that practically the entire world is looking at the U.S. election, now less than a month away.

The sitting president and incumbent Democratic candidate made the unprecedented move of stepping aside. History was then made with the first woman of color replacing him on the national ticket.

The Republican nominee and former president survived assassination attempts and contributed mightily to the deluge of disinformation thrown at American voters from every direction. It comes from the depths of social media and online from inside America and from enemies overseas.

The polling is so tight that predictions at this point might be a fool's errand. Now Democrats are showing signs they're anxious about the outcome in key swing states.

With me to discuss the race and how disinformation is shaping it are journalists Stephanie Flanders, head of economics and politics at Bloomberg, and Mark Landler, the London bureau chief for "The New York Times".

Welcome both of you back to the program.

So first of all, the atmospherics. I'm right, right. I mean, everybody asked me, they must all ask you as Americans, who's going to win the election.

MARK LANDLER, LONDON BUREAU CHIEF, "NEW YORK TIMES": Yes. And I'm glad you said fool's errand a moment ago because that's what we're mostly asked to do, which is offer prediction.

And at this point, it seems crazy to do so. As you said, everything is such a razor's edge. And what you think is going to happen bears a lot on what you think the polling is showing or failing to show.

So I think the best answer is to say you're not in the crystal ball business.

AMANPOUR: And Stephanie, just for our American viewers why is it that everybody overseas is also looking at this so closely and literally minute by minute?

STEPHANIE FLANDERS, HEAD OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICS, BLOOMBERG: I mean, it is always the case, right? That this is the most important election in the world. This is the biggest economy in the world. The leader on the global stage with particularly with so many major conflagrations at the moment where -- and consequences for this election, for policy in Ukraine, in the Middle East, in China.

I think that has sort of intensified the focus and, you know, as much as the fact that it's just so close, you know. All these -- all the things that you listed in your intro, all these dramatic things that have happened have not changed the polls.

And I think people are also just as a sort of anthropological spectacle, they can't take their eyes away from --

AMANPOUR: An anthropological spectacle -- I like that.

So let's go to the heart of what we're trying to figure out. And that is disinformation again. It was the case in 2016. It's been the case pretty much ever since, you know, to some degree. Can I just read out a list of disinformation over just the hurricane, which also has been a big international story, Hurricane Milton. And before that, Helene.

So basically over Trump's narrative is that Biden response was incompetent and federal assistance had run out. he accused the Democrats of basically ignoring Republican areas. He accused them of funneling FEMA assistance money to migrants and immigrants, falsely claimed that the Georgia governor couldn't reach President Biden during the crisis, you know.

[11:04:49]

AMANPOUR: And on and on and on. Falsely claimed that government only offered $750 to those who lost homes. And of course, this is all being amplified on -- by his minions and his supporters, but also by very important sectors of social media like X.

Is this different than what we've seen in the past? When you look at the amount of disinformation and "The New York Times" is writing about it a lot how would you analyze the impact?

LANDLER: Well, is it different? No. In the sense that in a couple of election cycles now, we've seen social media used as a kind of a channel for disinformation.

I think with each succeeding cycle, as the types of social media and their use are amplified, it becomes more and more potentially disruptive.

The hurricanes are a very good example of this. So here we are less than a month away and these very destructive storms go through key swing states. I mean, that's the important thing to remember. It's North Carolina and Georgia that we're talking about. Florida to a lesser extent.

And we're also talking about an area, emergency management, that has long been a difficult area in the U.S. going back famously to the case of Hurricane Katrina. And FEMA's very shaky early response to that.

So this is where social --

AMANPOUR: This time it's done very well.

LANDLER: And it has done very well. But they're playing to a kind of a legacy of a credibility problem that has no bearing on today's FEMA. And what FEMA is doing, which by all accounts has been very effective.

And when you're at the point right now where the polls are within the margin of error in Georgia and in North Carolina shifting a few people and making a few more people think the federal government is not coming through, is very damaging. FLANDERS: And then as ever, it is also a Trump aspect to this, I mean, the uniqueness of him as a candidate. It isn't just surrogates who are going out. It's not just sort of influencers and shady forces on social media who are propagating the misinformation. It's Donald Trump on the stump saying these things and he's got good reason for it. So he has -- he feels he has a track record of doing this.

And he has doubled down to such extent you have this extraordinary thing of the president himself calling him out in the press conference earlier this week.

AMANPOUR: Yes, exactly.

Before we go to a break and talk about some other issues, this is also something that is being used very significantly by various dictators in the world in terms of in the Philippines, remember under Duterte. Or in Myanmar, under the junta, et cetera. Using social media as the only news outlet, and too often, violent ends.

FLANDERS: Those who are in the firing line of a lot of example in Taiwan, people who've kind of learned to deal with China, Chinese misinformation there -- disinformation.

(CROSSTALKING)

FLANDERS: They say -- it is all about pre-inoculating the population, you know, having them be suspicious, having them question things not always believe things.

The problem with this is you do want them to be -- have trusted ways of communicating with people in a life-threatening situation in the hurricane. So if you've -- if everything is distrusted, that can't be an answer either because FEMA and others can't get through to people when you really need that message to be believed.

AMANPOUR: It really has a massive impact on leadership.

And we'll come back with more. Stephanie and Mark don't go away.

When we come back after a break, part two of this conversation. We'll talk about some of the main issues for voters ahead, and for overseas observers.

[11:08:14]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the program with Mark Landler London bureau chief for "The New York Times, and Stephanie Flanders, head of economics and politics at Bloomberg.

So we left off talking about leadership and how it can be corrupted by disinformation. So let's just talk about the foreign government therefore which have such a huge interest in this.

So House and Senate races are also being targeted according to U.S. intelligence by foreign governments. Moscow targeting candidates who support Ukraine aid. Russia does support Trump's reelection. China targets candidates in both parties. Iran apparently opposes Trump's reelection and Cuba apparently is likely to mount a campaign in favor of any candidate who'd be more supportive of lifting those sanctions.

What do some of these influence operations look like?

LANDLER: Well, what's interesting about them is to some extent what they're not. They're not an attempt to actually interfere with the voting count -- the vote counting process.

I think a lot of these foreign governments have decided that's too difficult. It's controlled largely by local authorities. So trying to infiltrate that process is perhaps not worth the effort.

But I think what they have concluded is if they can get out enough message that raises questions about voting irregularities, you kind of sow dissent, division in the society, which is a fundamental goal of any disinformation campaign.

And as you say, you do it in the service of one candidate or another. And it's actually a fascinating way to look at the issues in a perverse way by which government is most interested in helping which candidate.

Presumably Iran supports Kamala Harris because they assume that a President Donald Trump, who after all, you know, ordered the assassination of a senior Iranian general would be tougher on them, perhaps than she would.

AMANPOUR: And pulled out of that nuclear deal.

LANDLER: And pulled of the nuclear deal.

[11:14:46]

LANDLER: And then likewise, the Russians might feel that Donald Trump would force the Ukrainians to go to the negotiating table with the Russians in a way that Kamala Harris presumably wouldn't.

AMANPOUR: And that leads me to something I want to ask you. I mean, I think it was written about in "The Times" maybe elsewhere as well.

But in terms of foreign policy, we know where the Democrats stand on Ukraine. They want to support Ukraine's right to defend itself and they don't want Russia to win.

Trump is much more ambiguous on this. There was an article saying that Trump had developed his views on Ukraine and Zelenskyy through conversations with Putin.

FLANDERS: And more generally, I think foreign policy is the area where this debate about who will be most influencing President Trump if he's reelected in the White House becomes most acute because you tend to hear a senior Republican say, even now, well, there will be guard rails when it comes to foreign policy. There will be grownups in the room.

And others saying, hang on a minute. All those grownups have gone, none of them are supporting him anymore. Actually, this could be a question of who to talk to, even members of his family?

So I think the lack of clarity there is extraordinary.

AMANPOUR: And because you are, you know, journalist and expert on economics, it's still a case in the United States that Trump does do better by a longshot with the voters on the issue of a strong economy.

FLANDERS: Well, it is interesting that's one of the things I think had heartened the Democrats over the last month or so -- last couple of months is the narrowing of that gap.

It is true. I think he's still in the swing-state polls, he's narrowly in the lead still on the economy. But that gap has almost disappeared in many places.

And of course now we've had quite a big interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve, the Central Bank. And some pretty good jobs numbers recently.

Their hope I guess would be that that will start coming through in the polls. But actually, as you know we're actually seeing the opposite, if anything. We're seeing those polls continue to be extremely tight. And Kamala Harris, actually, if anything, losing her lead in some of those swing states.

So perhaps the connection between those two in the polls, or maybe in the way the polls are done or others, it's just not coming through.

AMANPOUR: And finally again, on foreign policy and Donald Trump's tendency to fabricate. I mean let's face it, he said in an interview that he had been to Gaza which he hasn't been to Gaza.

LANDLER: Right.

AMANPOUR: "The Times" wrote a very, very interesting article about the evident diminishing of his memory.

LANDLER: Well, that does raise an interesting question, which is, does Donald Trump genuinely believe he was in Gaza? Or is he just simply misspeaking.

You know, that raises a question which our newspaper has raised in the last few weeks about whether his cognitive abilities are in decline and he simply forgetting things, conflating things, confusing things.

And, you know -- and that's interesting because those were the very charges, allegations, observations that led Joe Biden to eventually yield to the wishes of his party and withdraw from the race.

So if that becomes a big topic in the final month in such a close race, it's possible that plays into people's final decision as well.

AMANPOUR: It's really fascinating.

Mark Landler, Stephanie Flanders -- as always, thank you very much.

LANDLER: Thank you.

AMANPOUR: Coming up, "Disclaimer". She is the Oscar-winning movie star; he is the Oscar-winning director behind "Roma" and "Gravity".

Together, they've teamed up for an extraordinary new psychological thriller.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You've not been honest with us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The man sent us here with the book he has written. You harassed him, you threatened him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's drunk. Threatening me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: My conversation with Cate Blanchett and Alfonso Cuaron after the break.

[11:18:37]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back.

From playing an elf in in "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings" to a world-renowned conductor in "Tar", the award-winning actress Cate Blanchett, is known for taking on a range of remarkable roles with stunning success.

Now, she's stepping into a psychological thriller, starring in Alfonso Cuaron's new Apple TV+ series "Disclaimer". Blanchett plays a celebrated journalist whose past catches up with her when she finds herself the subject of a tell-all book.

And a disclaimer of my own, I make a cameo appearance in the first episode presenting Blanchett's character with an award before this multilayered mystery starts revealing itself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: -- 20 years, the (INAUDIBLE) of this awards night has touched (INAUDIBLE).

Ladies and gentlemen, and an inspiration to us all, Catherine Ravenscroft.

CATE BLANCHETT, ACTRESS, "DISCLAIMER": All these years, you have concealed parts of yourself from the world.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To a beacon of truth, somebody who inspires me every -- every day.

BLANCHETT: You keep everyone in the dark to maintain a balance. And do you think you have succeeded?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: And I sat down with Cate Blanchett and Alfonso Cuaron here in London to talk about bringing this suspense to life.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[11:24:50]

AMANPOUR: Cate Blanchett, Alfonso Cuaron -- welcome to the program.

This is an extraordinary movie. I'm going to say movie because that's, I think, how you did it. So tell me what it was like shooting what I think you've described as seven different movies. They're so long, so complex. You had never done a TV series.

ALFONSO CUARON, DIRECTOR, "DISCLAIMER": Never. Never. Yes.

BLANCHETT: And never again?

AMANPOUR: Don't say that. Don't say that.

And you decided not to call it a series, not to call it episodes. It is chapters of what looks to me like a movie. It's like an Alfonso Cuaron movie.

CUARON: Well, I think it's up to the viewer to decide what, how they want to call it. The fact is that I have never done television. I don't know how to make -- do television, and I'm not saying it with pride. I think it's a skill that I don't have.

You know, there's a certain skill to shoot very fast and let go, you know. I don't think that that's in my -- in my DNA.

AMANPOUR: This took a long time.

CUARON: So it took a long time.

AMANPOUR: And full disclosure. I'm just going to say I was very proud to be playing myself --

BLANCHETT: Fellow thespian.

(CROSSTALKING)

AMANPOUR: -- you asked me to do that.

Fellow thespian. And this is what I said at the beginning.

Beware of narrative and form. Their power can bring us closer to the truth, but they can also be a weapon with a greater power to manipulate. What are we, the viewers, meant to take from that -- that speech, because it's not obvious, it's not obvious. You know, until much later.

BLANCHETT: Well the program is called "Disclaimer" and it is a "Disclaimer" of sorts and I think that we're living in, you know, -- it wants a cliche in a post-truth world.

And that we're very concerned with, you know, there's many wars going on around the world right now, many conflicts, but I think the conflict that's not discussed is the conflict of a narrative and who gets to control that narrative?

And it's this sort of, this quest of all war to have a simple truth. And it's saying, in you're -- coming out of your mouth at the very beginning that things are not what they seem but it's -- and you're going to be told a story in a way that perhaps you're not entirely in control of when we do think and demand to be in control of our own narrative.

CUARON: But also more importantly, the narrative that we create of ourselves, and again how sometimes these narratives are hiding a deeper truth. And that's the way in which everything is constructed.

Now, there are many, many, many, many clues throughout the whole, the whole, the whole, the whole show that in many if you watch it for the second time it has a complete different -- a complete different reading. It is not that we're withholding clues.

Actually that was Cate's concern from the get-go, not to withhold anything, not to cheat. In other words, is more about --

BLANCHETT: Not to mislead or manipulate the audience.

(CROSSTALKING)

CUARON: Not to mislead -- yes. Not to mislead the audience.

AMANPOUR: So let's now talk about just the story itself. And there are these constant flashbacks where you as a young person, young woman on holiday with your child basically had an affair with a much younger boy.

And then you get this book given to you that then reveals a whole story about what happened and it's kind of like a revenge book. Tell us the story.

BLANCHETT: Well, at the heart of -- the heart of the series is a book called "The Perfect Stranger", a pulpy, self-published book that is delivered to my character in episode one. And it describes an event from someone else's perspective of what went on in Italy. And what you witness is what you're referring to before. It's my character doesn't really -- doesn't speak, can't unpack it by herself, but also is not given the chance to speak, which I think often happens to women.

AMANPOUR: Theres a lot of sex in the film. How do you feel about it? Because it's your character basically.

BLANCHETT: I -- when I first read the script I threw it across the room and called Alfonso and I said there's a lot of sex in this. Did you need that much sex.

But watching and talking through it and the way you were so meticulous about how you plotted the many strands of the drama is that I realized it was to place the audience in a very powerful, memorable relationship to that -- to their own sense of what was enough, to what their own sense of what was -- what desire was, and also to really get locked into a very male point of view very early on in relationship to that sex.

[11:29:43]

AMANPOUR: And in the first half, essentially, you are well and truly canceled. Your career is practically crumbling because of this book that's landed in everybody's lap.

Yes. I mean that is also a very today thing, right?

BLANCHETT: Yes.

AMANPOUR: The idea of instant judgment and that's what this film is about as well.

BLANCHETT: I mean, what I think is really interesting about the way you framed that on the day when we shot it is what happens in the office is almost like a nightmare.

You know, it's a heightened state that -- because the suddenly everyone in the office turns around. And so you've gone beyond naturalism because that whole experience -- I mean it's (INAUDIBLE), that's another cancel culture is a very unnatural experience that people you don't know outside your framework you may not know all the details of things happened or formed quick and easy judgments as a pack.

Now, I have a very clear moral compass and I believe that there are certain things that you cannot transgress. But it's also we don't need to get all the facts together or actually we've lost faith in our judicial system.

So there's all these other structures that we could find a sense of collective justice that we no longer have. So we have pack justice and I think vengeance and retribution, they're are understandable, but they're very different things to actually what I think is what at the heart of justice. And cancel culture has an energy of vengeance.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: We did that interview in the Churchill Suite of the old War Office here in London, now a hotel.

We'll bring you more of our conversation when they tell me about the power of truth after the break. [11:31:27]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back for part 2 of my conversation with the Oscar- winning duo actress Cate Blanchett and director Alfonso Cuaron about their new show, "Disclaimer", an edge of your thriller series about a secret past and a career that comes tumbling down.

Here's what Blanchett and Cuaron told me about the origins of this story and the power of truth and lies.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: The story was based on "The Perfect Stranger" which is the book in the film that landed in Catherine's lap. It was written by the mother of the deceased young man who drowned. How did she know the story? What was it based on?

CUARON: Well, she went to -- she went to the place where it happened to retrieve the son, her son's corpse and -- right after he died.

So she knew the places. She knew the places and there was already the information that catherine ravens croft was the person who was there. And pretty much then where you're watching the one you experience of that novel is the point of view of Nancy --

AMANPOUR: The mother.

CUARON: -- of the mother, Nancy.

AMANPOUR: Played by an excellent Lesley Manville.

BLANCHETT: Lesley Manville.

CUARON: By Lesley Manville --

(CROSSTALK)

CUARON: -- that is incredible and always was --

(CROSSTALK)

CUARON: But they -- so, she is -- either she wrote that novel as an act of catharsis, as an act of anger, or as -- or as an act of hoping for certain retribution. That in many ways is irrelevant.

One more time, what matters is the judgment that everybody is taking based upon a book. She's reconstructing a reality based upon just a few facts and some photographs --

(CROSSTALK)

BLANCHETT: But obviously -- photographs. I mean, as a mother of three boys, it's a big moment.

AMANPOUR: You are a mother.

BLANCHETT: Yes, I am. Yes. It's a big moment when you're when your son enters into a sexual relationship with someone else? And so for her to find those photographs, it's a very confronting moment for a son that she hasn't -- she's very, very enmeshed with.

And those photographs become a hand grenade that she obviously hasn't processed herself or hasn't had -- has transposed her own layer of meaning onto those photographs.

I mean, we think were so visually literate but I often wonder that people can read a photograph properly or don't -- and now with A.I., I mean photographs have been -- they're just being bastions of truth, it's been eroded even further.

But the photographs are a real hand grenade and they keep coming back and being reframed in different ways. And of course, they mean an entirely different thing to Catherine than they do to Nancy.

CUARON: And also because all of that is a projection of the relationship that Nancy had with Jonathan, her son. That there's -- there is a very strange relationship that will be unfolding as you, as you watch.

[11:39:45]

AMANPOUR: Well, honestly there's so much more I could ask you, but this is such a complex story and such an amazing ensemble and such a reveal that we're just going to leave it there.

BLANCHETT: And thank you for keeping --

(CROSSTALK)

AMANPOUR: I was so glad to be part of that, especially saying this stuff.

CUARON: No, because we needed that voice. We needed a voice that was --

BLANCHETT: Sexy.

(CROSSTALK)

CUARON: Yes. It was because of that. To be a voice of credibility that from the get-go states what you're doing is warning the audience of what they are going to see --

(CROSSTALK)

AMANPOUR: Yes. And you don't realize it, but --

BLANCHETT: Yes. Yes.

AMANPOUR: -- you do. It's really great. I was glad to be part of it, a little part of it. Alfonso Cuaron, Cate Blanchett -- thank you so much for being here.

BLANCHETT: Thank you.

CUARON: Thank you so much, Christiane.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: And you can start watching. The first two episodes of the seven-part series has already dropped. "Disclaimer" on Apple TV+ right now.

Coming up defiance and courage.

How one female Afghan athlete is using sport to give a voice to women in her country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAMIDI: And I hope that people, they wake up and they see that there is a country by name of Afghanistan and women are suffering there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:41:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back.

Less than a month after 9/11, 23 years ago this week, U.S.-led forces invaded Afghanistan. They quickly toppled the Taliban for harboring al-Qaeda leaders who had planned the attack. And while a new U.S.- backed government brought massive change to the country, especially for women, they continue to struggle hard to achieve real freedoms.

I witnessed this during one of many reporting trips there among the many women and girls I met about a year after the Taliban was overthrown. One of the most memorable was 10-year-old Paike (ph) who had been sold to a 45-year-old man who already had another wife. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Why did you get married so young.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our family was bankrupt so to pay back our debts, my father offered me to the man we owed money.

AMANPOUR: What did you think when you understood that your father was giving you to this man? To pay off his debt?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was very sad, but I couldn't do anything.

AMANPOUR: Paike, does your husband tried to have children with you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

AMANPOUR: Have you ever understood happiness? Have you ever known happiness?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

AMANPOUR: Although the chief justice presiding here over the Supreme Court says selling young girls is a serious crime, it's actually on the rise as families struggle to survive.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's happened to these people after this 23 years or four. And the poverty, they're really selling their daughters. This is not legal.

But what they do is a kind of tradition so that the government is not really in a position to interfere because we still have a lot of people who think the way the Taliban was thinking. And the faces only change.

AMANPOUR: Everyone we talk to says only time and education will bring real rights for Afghanistan's women. And nowhere is that more keenly felt than among girls who are now allowed to go to school.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: And that education did work. But after 20 years of regaining some of those rights, it's all gone backwards again. Since returning to power when the U.S. unilaterally pulled out just over three years ago, the Taliban has again erased women from the public sphere.

No school past the age of 12, no work, no playing sports or going to the park if you're female, even speaking aloud in public is now being banned.

And while a small number of Afghan women have managed to escape and leave it all behind, even in exile, even on the streets of Paris, threats and misogyny continue to follow them.

But as this CNN report shows, some of these brave women like taekwondo athlete's Marzia Hamidi are not willing to back down. Not yet.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARZIA HAMIDI, AFGHANISTAN ATHLETE: I will cut your head off. We have your location. We will share it for the highest bidder.

They are so angry and they are hating me.

I'm Marzia Hamidi, taekwondo champion from Afghanistan. And now I'm an athlete in exile in Paris.

And the part (ph) that I live in Afghanistan is not easy for a woman. Taekwondo was a way to feel that I have some power and I'm someone.

When the Taliban took power in Kabul, they announced that women are not allowed to do sport and they cannot even go to school and they officially ban everything for a woman.

For me, it was not possible to stay in Afghanistan anymore.

Leaving home is so hard. It's beautiful Paris but every day, I was stressing and thinking that ok, how I can help my family, my people, my country.

[11:49:48]

HAMIDI: Even sometimes I feel guilty that while I'm here, that there are millions of women there that are suffering. So I launched my hashtag, LetUsExist.

I'm inviting all of you to join me today --

And after that I had an interview with an Afghan journalist. He asked me about the cricket national team of Afghanistan.

As a woman, I cannot represent my country. I have to compete as a refugee, but they can easily come to the international competitions, represent Afghanistan. And I say that, no, you're not representing me and people like me. They are normalizing Taliban.

The day after, I received calls, you have to stop talking about the cricket team. I could feel that he's ready to kill me because he was so angry. And then I received like, nonstop calls, more than 5,000 calls and messages.

If I find you, I will (INAUDIBLE) make you in pieces. I'm supposed to be safe here but I'm facing with the same people that I was facing in Afghanistan. And I have to fight with them again.

They call me from France, Germany, U.K., Belgium, Netherland -- like everywhere, everywhere. I changed my home and I'm under the police protection all the time. I'm ready to be like attacked by someone.

I don't think we can find a safe place for Afghanistan woman, especially a woman who are fighting against terrorists.

But I will fight until I win against these people. And I hope that's people, they wake up and they see that there is a country by name of Afghanistan and women are suffering there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Marzia Hamidi in her own words raising awareness about the suffering. And that is what she and other brave Afghan women like her are trying to do all the time.

And just to note, CNN has reached out to the Afghan national cricket team for comment on this report.

When we come back, "Blitz", a story of war, race, and ultimately love through the eyes of a mother and son. I speak to British film director, Oscar winner Steve McQueen about finally showcasing diversity in his new World War II film. That's after a break. [11:52:13]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: And finally, countless books, films and series have been made about the blitz, the devastating eight-month German bombing campaign against the U.K. in World War II. But now multiple Oscar winning director Steve McQueen is bringing a fresh take to our screens by focusing on ordinary people in all their diversity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My mom is (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She did it to keep you safe.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your son did not arrive at his destination.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're responsible for his safety.

Why can't you tell me? Where is my boy?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is for all those parents whose children have been evacuated and for my boy George (ph).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: It is also above all a story about a mother and her son, about the children. McQueen is known for grappling with important periods of history from "12 Years a Slave" and "Small Axe" to "Shame" and "Hunger".

And this project is no different. Here's what he hopes we take away from the film that follows a mother and son separated by war, played by Saoirse Ronan and Elliot Heffernan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVE MCQUEEN, DIRECTOR, "BLITZ": I want to focus on the people on the ground. I think that in -- usually with war films people make decisions and people have to sort of seem to have to survive because of those decisions.

And I wanted to focus on, you know, on the normal people that are left behind rather than the soldiers and so forth.

AMANPOUR: So, this centers around a mother and her boy.

MCQUEEN: Elliot, you know, had to deal with who George was at that time and sort of racism itself, what was going on at a time.

AMANPOUR: When he steps inside the actual segregation --

MCQUEEN: Yes.

AMANPOUR: -- that's going on in one of those underground shelters? (CROSSTALK)

MCQUEEN: Yes. It was a story this I took from an actual -- an actual -- an actual story would actually happened where Ife -- which means love -- the air raid warden has to confront racism within an area where people are sharing a space of safety. And people within that safe spaces of safety, people start putting up barriers and divisions. And he says, this is not happening here. Tear it down. We are all here to be one. We're and we have to set an example because of what's happening above us is someone trying to sort of set another example for us. And if you don't like it, you have to leave.

AMANPOUR: What do you want the impact of this particular film to be? What do you hope it is?

MCQUEEN: I think, you know, it's corny to say, but it's about love and it's the only -- and it's -- yes, thing I'll just say it, you know, sounds a bit weird, but no, it's not weird at all.

I'm very proud to say that because it's the only thing worth dying for, only thing worth living for. That's it.

There's no -- all this nonsense that goes on in the world, this kind of stuff, it's just -- and it comes down to love.

And I think the film goes back to the situation of a community, a mother and her child.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[11:59:51]

AMANPOUR: It's such a moving film. "Blitz" is in select theaters from November 1st. And then streaming on Apple TV+ on November 22nd.

That is all we have time for this week. Don't forget. You can find all of our shows online as podcasts at cnn.com/podcast and on all other major platforms.

I'm Christiane Amanpour in London. Thank you for watching and see you again next week.