Hot Docs 2025: The Last Ambassador Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Hot Docs Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

In August 2021, the Taliban took over Kabul City, the capital of Afghanistan. After twenty years of American occupation, an agreement through the Doha Deal allowed the group to recoup its power. On the third day of their new administration, the group held a press conference. They announced that women would get the due respect, but they needed to follow the Sharia law. Day after day, this decision resulted in lost rights, including the liberties of working and studying, and consequently, even the public space. Manizha Bakhtari is the last female ambassador of the former government. She represents the interests of Afghans in Vienna, Austria. Ultimately, Bakhatari’s refusal to step down from her role and articulate women’s rights in Europe made her an enemy of the Taliban.

Austrian director Natalie Johanna Halla follows the aftermath of the takeover and its repercussions on the embassy in her latest feature, The Last Ambassador (Die Letzte Botschafterin). Through her film, Halla documents the shift in the status quo within the diplomatic environment. The first moments capture a bleak feeling. Bakhtari had to let go of all the staff; only one officer stayed, performing different duties: driver, consulate, and general services. Halla’s camera documents uncertainty. They need to leave the official building because the Taliban will not fund a government branch they do not recognize and do not support. In this sense, the film is a witness to the construction of an independent exile embassy to resist a terrorist group.

Accordingly, Bakhtari becomes a central figure in speaking out against the aggression and segregation of women in her homeland. Her connection with young women who cannot study in Kabul is fascinating and emotional. She champions them and mentors them to keep learning at home. She has continuous support for them from afar. In this sense, the film divides her life into two blocks – the biography and the career. Hence, a part frontloads the emotional weight of the film. She is confronting a dangerous group of armed men on their sovereignty. It goes against their philosophy of how women should behave and act, according to their utterly religious precincts. It is a fascinating dichotomy between beliefs.

On the other hand, The Last Ambassador adds depth to history of Bakhtari. Furthermore, the director presents her family as an anchor to her complicated life. They keep her safe and emotionally in a secure space. The relationship with her father, Wasef Bakhtari, is a particular standout. We understand, as audiences, how her ties with education come from her father, the most noteworthy Persian poet of modernity. The arch finalizes with a beautiful homage to Persian musicians who adapted his poems to music. Her silent cry resumes how she dearly loved her father and misses her homeland. Meanwhile, the interview with her husband Nasef, is not nearly as engaging. From there, the film shifts its thematic focus towards education and Bakhtari’s fight for women’s rights. Working better as a study of her career than as a straight up biography, her connection with her father can be felt throughout her diplomatic trajectory.

In the end, The Last Ambassador tells the story about a courageous woman and her fight to protect women in her homeland from an oppressive regime. By diving deeper into her occupation and family, director Natalie Johanna Halla portrays a woman urging the international community to take action and defend Afghan women before it’s too late.

Score: 75/100

*still courtesy of Hot Docs*

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Pedro Lima

Brazilian film writer. He is also a producer and executive producer for Zariah Filmes. Member of the International Film Society Critics Association (IFSCA), International Documentary Association (IDA), and Gotham and Media Film Institute.