Kandahar (Safar e Ghandehar)

Released 2001
Stars Nelofer Pazira, Hassan Tantaï, Sadou Teymouri
Directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf

We never would have heard of this movie if it hadn't been for 9/11. It was shown at a Toronto film festival a few days before 9/11, and soon we all wanted to know more about the Taliban. Remember those guys? That evil regime of ultra-fundamentalist muslims in Afghanistan who banned music and kite flying (??), forced all women to wear burquas, and punished any man not wearing a beard. Those were some of their comedic highlights, but they were no comedians. They were a vicious, terroristic group who enjoyed a very brief reign of power thanks to the good old USA. We actually gave them many chances to turn Al Quaida over to us, but they refused since they were closely tied. The Taliban were also too big for their britches after having defeated the British many decades ago and the Russians with our unfortunate help, but I don't want to get off on that tangent, and they thought they could kick our butts too. Yeah, right. We took them out in a couple of weeks, and the rest is history.

I mention that background, because in a few years few people will even remember the Taliban. We knew so little about them to begin with and then we destroyed them so quickly that the vestiges of their sick society will thankfully be lost forever. That's where this movie comes in. Although it never really shows any Taliban figures, the film shows their effects on the Afghan people and their society. The film is based on Nafas' attempt to return to her home of Kandahar to visit her sister who's going to commit suicide during the upcoming eclipse. In real life, Nelofer Pazira, who plays Nafas, attempted to visit a childhood friend whose family was being tortured by the Taliban, but she didn't make it much past the Iranian border. The movie is an amalgam of her experiences in fleeing the country and trying to return as well as the experiences of others. The end result is not very dramatic, but it's a very interesting look into one of the most fucked up societies of all time. My favorite scene was Nafas' examination by a "doctor". The doctor sat on one side of a cloth barrier, and Nafas sat on the other side. They had to speak through a child intermediary even though they were only two feet apart. So the doctor would ask the child if Nafas was throwing up her food, and the child would repeat the question to Nafas. Nafas would reply to the child, and that's how they were supposed to communicate since Muslim law forbids a man to look upon a woman he's not married to. They did allow for a small hole in the sheet through which the doctor could examine the woman's eye or mouth, and it was the height of ridiculousness. To describe the Taliban society as "stone age" would be an insult to the real stone age societies. Seeing this movie reinforced my feelings that this government had to be removed regardless of their ties to Al Quaida.

Summary by Bill Alward, Auguest 30, 2003