Kandahar

Rating:
Summary: ALL ROADS LEAD TO...
Review: This is an intriguing film by renowned Iranian director Mosen Makhmalbaf. It is a brief, fascinating peek at Afghanistan under the Taliban regime. Filmed before the September 11, 2001 attack on the World trade Center took place, it offers a tantalizing glimpse into a country in which few of us can imagine living.

The premise of the film revolves around an Afghani woman named Nafas (Niloufar Pazira), who has emigrated to Canada but finds herself returning years later to her homeland after her sister, who had remained behind in Afghanistan, writes her a letter announcing her intention to end her life at the time of the next solar eclipse.

In the film, Nafas is journeying to her sister in Kandahar. She finds her country, a mosaic of ethnic and linguistic communities, totally devastated by two decades of war. It is through her eyes that the viewer sees the extreme views that have overrun her country. It is through her eyes that the viewer sees the tragedy that is Afghanistan.

The viewer sees that education is firmly in the hands of the Mullahs, the local religious leaders who practice and instruct young boys in a strict fundamentalist interpretation of Islam. It is an ideology that is interwoven with a chilling militancy. Despite the extreme views propounded by the Mullahs, mothers struggle to get their boys in these schools, so as to be assured that their sons will get your basic three hots and a cot in this land of famine.

Moreover, the issue of the role of women under such a repressive regime is also looked at. The viewer sees how the women are treated, denied an education, and referred to in collective, pejorative terms (black heads), due to the burkhas they are forced to wear, at all times. The viewer also sees the devastation that war has brought to this country in terms of land mines and consequent maimings. The results of famine and poor health care are also apparent throughout the course of this film.

As a story, the film promises but, ultimately, fails to deliver a very satisfactory ending. Metaphorically, however, it delivers. Just as her sister's end is near, the end of Afghanistan under this repressive Taliban regime is also near. The film is positively prophetic, when viewed in a metaphoric light.

Though the story line is left to drift as a backdrop for the bigger picture story alluded to through the stunning cinematography, the film still manages to succeed. The film, shot entirely in natural light due to the lack of electricity on location, is vivid with its imagery of a culture and lifestyle so alien to those of us living with and surrounded by creature comforts.

The beautiful Niloufar Pazira, who is not a professional actress but, rather, an Afghani born journalist living in Canada, is wonderful as Nafas. The cast of unknown locals contribute to the vitality of this film, which is a must see for those who are interested in other cultures or in the human condition. Filmed on the Iran-Afghanistan border, the film is based in part on a similar journey to Kabul that Niloufar Pazira had herself earlier attempted in response to a letter from a despondent childhood friend. That journey was never completed due to the danger inherent in such a trip.

The DVD offers superlative visuals and a crystal clear audio but has only a few limited bonus options or special features. It contains an interesting featurette entitled, "Lifting the Veil", which is a documentary that centers around Ms. Pazira. It tells the viewer about her extraordinary life and how it came about that this film was made.

There is also a film commentary by Ms. Pazira. What is interesting about the commentary is that it is not from a director's perspective. The commentary is from a very personal perspective and details what is meant to be conveyed by this film. Those who listen to the commentary will know that the film is about much more than its basic story line about Nafas finding her sister. The film is about Afghanistan.

Rating:
Summary: All The Way To Kandahar
Review: When "Kandahar" was shown in Cannes in May/01, it was another film from an exotique country with exotique culture and traditions. Now, after September 11th, it all comes down to be a movie about a place where everybody is watching closely. I have to admit that I was most interested in this movie because it takes palce in that region, but after watching it, I changed my opinion.

It is the story of an Afghan journalist, Nafas,-- who now lives in Canada - and receives a letter from her sister telling she'll commit suicide during the last eclipse of the XX Century. Then Nafas decides to fly back to her country in order to try to convince her sister not to kill herself. But before reaching her, the journalist has much more trouble in arriving in Kandahar. The film shows her journey and all people she meets through it and the problems she runs up against when in the way to Kandahar . In the background we see many costumes of this region and how living with terrosrism in everyday life is. And the beauty of this exotique land - I have to bring up that the film opens with an extremely beautiful image of an eclipse.

I usually have some difficult in undersand Iranian films at the first time I see them. Maybe it's because it's a very different culture with different values, but it doesn't mean I don't like them. This "Kandahar" was an exception. I really appreciated very much only watching it once -- I'll probably watch it again soon. You may feel amazed with the settings and the lighting, but what counts more here is the reality of these people. It's touching seeing children been taught no to touch dolls and teddy bears the find on the floor because these toys may carry mine and seriously hurt these children. Moreover, the film made take a different look into my life itself. I mean I have problems -- as everybody does -- , but they are so small when compared with those people's problems. Some of them have to wait up to one to receive a pair of rough legs because they have lost their own in a mining field.

All in all, the end is very touching -- I won't give it to you --, and the very last lines resonated in my mind for hours. Although Nafas journey is to save her sister, it becomes a way of her own rendemption and discover. Kudos to the director Mohsen Makhmakbaf and to the actress Nelofer Pazira, who had lived a very similar situation which inspired the movie.

Rating:
Summary: fascinating pseudo-documentary drama
Review: When you see "Kandahar," it's almost impossible to believe that you're watching a film set in the late 20th Century. Mohsen Makhmalbaf's film takes place in Afghanistan in the latter days of the Taliban regime, when women were not merely viewed as second class citizens, but were denied any form of education or civil rights and even had to go out in public covered from head to toe to prevent men from seeing their faces. The filmmaker takes us to the heart of this alien and frightening world and makes us see, perhaps for the first time on the big screen, just how horrific life was for women in that time and place.

"Kandahar" is less a narrative film than a series of fascinating vignettes that drive home the realities of life in that part of the world. What plot there is involves the efforts of a female Canadian journalist to sneak back into her native country to prevent her desperate sister in Kandahar from committing suicide at the next solar eclipse. But that is really just a string on which to hang the individual pearls that make up the film. What is of primary interest to both the filmmaker and the audience are the various people the journalist encounters and the many experiences she undergoes. Hidden beneath her own burka, she witnesses firsthand the devastating poverty, the utter degradation and de-humanization of women, and the authoritarian oppression that defined life in that country during the Taliban rule. Along the way, she meets an American doctor who is trying his hardest to in some way relieve the misery of these people, but who finds himself waging a losing battle against the primitivism and theocratic oppression that have made life a living hell for the common citizenry of the country. She also encounters a seemingly endless group of people who have become dismembered by all the land mines left over from the Afghani war with the Russians. There is one remarkable scene wherein hordes of desperate, one-legged men hobble on crutches across the desert as Red Cross helicopters rain prosthetic limbs down onto the sands below. It is merely one among many images from the film that seer themselves into the viewer's memory. Another is a scene in which a male doctor has to examine his female patients through a hole cut out of a sheet, not even being allowed to talk to the woman directly about her symptoms but having to get his information through a male (or female child) "interpreter."

Makhmalbaf keeps the ending of the film deliberately ambiguous which might frustrate some viewers but which actually adds to the verisimilitude of the piece. In the same way, much of the acting in the film borders on the amateurish at times, but again that contributes to the pseudo-documentary aura that the film must have to be truly effective. A clear-cut narrative resolution and slick performances by obviously professional actors would likely rob the film of its much-needed sense of immediacy.

"Kandahar," by providing a voice to so many voiceless people, is a film that cries out to be seen.

Rating:
Summary: fascinating pseudo-documentary drama
Review: When you see "Kandahar," it's almost impossible to believe that you're watching a film set in the late 20th Century. Mohsen Makhmalbaf's film takes place in Afghanistan in the latter days of the Taliban regime, when women were not merely viewed as second class citizens, but were denied any form of education or civil rights and even had to go out in public covered from head to toe to prevent men from seeing their faces. The filmmaker takes us to the heart of this alien and frightening world and makes us see, perhaps for the first time on the big screen, just how horrific life was for women in that time and place.

"Kandahar" is less a narrative film than a series of fascinating vignettes that drive home the realities of life in that part of the world. What plot there is involves the efforts of a female Canadian journalist to sneak back into her native country to prevent her desperate sister in Kandahar from committing suicide at the next solar eclipse. But that is really just a string on which to hang the individual pearls that make up the film. What is of primary interest to both the filmmaker and the audience are the various people the journalist encounters and the many experiences she undergoes. Hidden beneath her own burka, she witnesses firsthand the devastating poverty, the utter degradation and de-humanization of women, and the authoritarian oppression that defined life in that country during the Taliban rule. Along the way, she meets an American doctor who is trying his hardest to in some way relieve the misery of these people, but who finds himself waging a losing battle against the primitivism and theocratic oppression that have made life a living hell for the common citizenry of the country. She also encounters a seemingly endless group of people who have become dismembered by all the land mines left over from the Afghani war with the Russians. There is one remarkable scene wherein hordes of desperate, one-legged men hobble on crutches across the desert as Red Cross helicopters rain prosthetic limbs down onto the sands below. It is merely one among many images from the film that seer themselves into the viewer's memory. Another is a scene in which a male doctor has to examine his female patients through a hole cut out of a sheet, not even being allowed to talk to the woman directly about her symptoms but having to get his information through a male (or female child) "interpreter."

Makhmalbaf keeps the ending of the film deliberately ambiguous which might frustrate some viewers but which actually adds to the verisimilitude of the piece. In the same way, much of the acting in the film borders on the amateurish at times, but again that contributes to the pseudo-documentary aura that the film must have to be truly effective. A clear-cut narrative resolution and slick performances by obviously professional actors would likely rob the film of its much-needed sense of immediacy.

"Kandahar," by providing a voice to so many voiceless people, is a film that cries out to be seen.