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Kandahar

Posted by jamesgarvin (A) on April 2, 2005 at 14:13:40

Finally watched this film that was hyped so much after 9/11. For those who do not know, the film is based upon a true story, and the lead actress actually was the subject of the real story. Nelofer Pazira is an Afghan woman whose family fled Afghanistan shortly after the Soviet Union withdrew, when it appeared that the Taliban was to take over the country.

Her father, who was a physician and was tortured by the Soviets because he refused to become a communist, took his family ten days through the dessert into Iran, from where they left for Canada. While in Canada, Ms. Pazira maintained contact with a friend. One day, she received a letter from her friend that her friend declared she was going to commit suicide in three days because she could not stand to live under Taliba rule any more.

Ms. Pazira, who is a journalist, decides to go back to Kandahar to prevent her friend's suicide. She flies back to Iran, where she plans to cross the border into Afghanistan. This is where the film begins.

She carries a tape recorder with her to record her travels. The film plays like a documentary, which, as I learn from the special features, she intended to film. When she first began her journey, she contacted an Iranian film director to film her journey. He apparently passed, but then two years later, remembered her story, and decided to make a movie of her travels.

The film captures her journey. From hiring guides, one a small child, one the husband of four wives, visiting an American born man who wears a fake beard, and acts as a doctor, and pretending to be part of a wedding congregation, we see her difficulties crossing the dessert of Afghanistan. In the film, she is captured by Taliban. In real life, she met people fleeing from Kandahar, who told her that the city was much too dangerous for her to return to, so she ended her journey.

I would rate the film as three of fours stars. I think the film did a pretty good job of showing some of the perils of living in Afghanistan, particularly the numerous people who have had limbs blown off by mines. There are no special effects. These are real people. The film also shows the lack of food, and the lack of quality drinking water, which causes rampant sickness. I think it also did a good job of showing that there are not very many people that can be trusted. They are always looking around the corner, and are so consumed with survival, that they will steal, and even murder.

This film probably deserves a comparison with Osama, a film made in post-Taliban Afghanistan, about pre-Taliban Afghanistan. I think Osama shows more of the day to day problems of living with the Taliban, particularly for women, whereas Kandahar shows more of the effects of the Taliban regime. I think that Osama is probably the better film.

In any event, recommended.

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