|
KANDAHAR Send This Review to a Friend
The terror of living in Afghanistan becomes vividly apparent in this unusual film that's fictional but seems ominously real as a result of using non-professionals and the documentary-like approach by writer-director Moshen Makhmalbaf. He has based "Kandahar" on a real-life situation and the result could scarcely be more of the moment, although the film was made before the Taliban rule crumbled in the face of the military assault by the United States and its allies. It presents a special opportunity to become familiar with rule under the Taliban and a sense of the prevailing poverty in the country.
The story involves Nafas, (Nelofer Pazira), a female Afghanistan-born journalist who emigrated as a teenager, but has now returned to travel to her maimed and embittered sister. Not only has her sister been injured by one of the many landmines strewn through the country, but she resents the repression of women and she has vowed to kill herself when the next solar eclipse occurs. Nafas is racing against time--and against all of the obstacles involved for a woman in that backward country.
A woman cannot travel on her own, so she must find a man to take her, which leads her into one odd encounter after another, each revealing another aspect of life under the regime. One of the most effective and chilling scenes is at a Red Cross outpost where people flock to get artificial limbs to replace those lost in warfare or by triggering a mine. Some show up to wheedle limbs which they can in turn sell for money they need so desperately for basic necessities. They'll try any con to help them live from day to day.
Nafas faces danger from the patrolling enforcers of the Taliban, and when a group with which she is traveling is stopped for questioning, the anxiety is palpable. Can she make it to her sister in time? The tension builds, and in the process we get a portrait of what life has been like for women, as well as for others who suffer in that forlorn part of the world. This is a revealing and important film by a most-talented director. An Avatar Films release.
|