Netflix has bolstered its slate of Oscar short hopefuls with the acquisition of Three Songs for Benazir. Directed by Gulistan and Elizabeth Mirzaei, the 22-minute documentary tells the story of Shaista, a young man who is a refugee living in modern-day Afghanistan. Newly married to Benazir and living in a camp for displaced persons in Kabul, Shaista struggles to balance his dreams of being the first from his tribe to join the Afghan National Army with pressure from his father and brother to start a family. Three Songs for Benazir which is now streaming on the service, is also qualified by Netflix for the Academy Award consideration in the documentary short category. The directing duo, who are married and split their time between California and Afghanistan, filmed the short during a four-year period. Despite being bombarded with media about Afghanistan, the world often sees only a fraction of the reality and there is a poverty of imagination about the lives of real people in the region. This story about a young couple searching for their place in the world is a universal one in many ways, and we are thrilled that it will now have a global reach we could not have imagined.