’13 Days 13 Nights’ Trailer – Martin Bourboulon’s Thriller Revisits Kabul Evacuation

Inspired by true events during the fall of Kabul in August 2021, 13 Days 13 Nights (13 Jours, 13 Nuits), the intense political thriller directed by Martin Bourboulon, dramatizes the desperate effort to evacuate civilians from the French Embassy as Taliban forces seize control of the Afghan capital.

It is based on the book In the Hell of Kab­ul: 13 Days, 13 Nights (13 jours, 13 nuits : dans l’enfer de Kaboul) written by Mohamed Bida, the Embassy’s head of security, who had spent five years in Afghanistan and was about to retire. But on August 15, 2021, everything changed. He recounts the terror of that day, the image of hundreds of people swarming the gates of the Embassy.

The film stars Roschdy Zem as Commander Mohamed Bida alongside Lyna Khoudri, Sidse Babett Knudsen, and Christophe Montenez.

13 Days 13 Nights had its world premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, where it screened Out of Competition and is set for release in theaters in the United States on March 27th, 2026, via Samuel Goldwyn Films.

Set on August 15, 2021, as U.S. troops withdraw from Afghanistan and Taliban fighters advance toward Kabul, the story follows Commander Mohamed Bida and his security team at the French Embassy, one of the last Western diplomatic missions still operating in the city. When hundreds of desperate civilians seek refuge at the embassy gates, Bida decides to shelter them and organize a dangerous convoy to the airport. With time running out and Taliban forces closing in, the mission becomes a grueling thirteen-day race against chaos and uncertainty as the team struggles to guide hundreds of people to safety.

In an interview, Director Martin Bourboulon explained that he read the book and found himself riveted, saying, “I loved the fact that it has elements of a thriller — the clock is counting down —, but there’s also an extraordinarily intense emotional side to it — all of these individual fates hanging in the balance, all of these people, forced by events outside of their control, having to flee their homeland.”

Watch the official trailer for 13 Days 13 Nights above.