Kandahar (2001)

Touches You

Simply A Masterpiece

An Exercise In Nonsense

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Mohsen Makhmalbaf's "Safar-e Ghandehar" ("Kandahar" in English) is one of those movies that turned out to be more significant than the people involved in the production assumed that it would be. Even when it got screened at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, most people worldwide had never heard of the Afghan city. But the 9/11 attacks focused everyone's attention on the Central Asian country, and suddenly, cities like Kabul, Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif started appearing on the nightly news.This Iranian-French co-production makes the Taliban's Afghanistan look like the most miserable place, especially for women. The saddest thing is that the Taliban would've never taken over had the USSR not invaded Afghanistan, prompting the US to back Islamist fighters against the Soviet army. Even with the Taliban out of power, the situation for women in Afghanistan looks as bleak as can be (to say nothing of Afghanistan's narco-economy).The most interesting thing about this movie is that it shows us people's daily lives in an isolated society. Told from the point of view of an Afghan-Canadian woman looking for her sister, it's a devastating look at the country. I recommend it.

I don't usually comment, but I thought this movie was getting a bad rap and decided to pipe up. I thought Kandahar was a visual feast with an interesting setting and a suspense filled plot. It has been several years since I have seen it, so I am short on details, but I LOVED it.In addition, I thought the amateurish quality was appropriate. Even though there is some need to "suspend disbelief" when, for example, we see things that she doesn't, this movie is a presenting itself as a documentary of the main character's experience traveling to Afganistan to find her sister. It is not meant to feel like a Hollywood movie. Of course, I am not in a position to verify the accuracy of the film as I have never even traveled to the middle east, but it does correspond to other things I have heard and read. I would recommend Kandahar to those who are interested in seeing what the desert around Afganistan looks like, interested in the culture, and who don't need an action driven plot.

I came to this movie thinking it would be a documentary--and it is, in a way: it was filmed in what appears to be war-torn Afghanistan, and it includes some genuine news footage. At first, I was confused because "reality" soon gives way to scenes and behavior that could only be called, at best, surreal; at worst, bizarre. The main character, who is also the voice-over narrator, is played by an Afghanistan-born Canadian actress impersonating herself. The rest of the cast, with three exceptions, seem to be Afghanis speaking their native dialects. However, through their gestures, speech rhythms, and of course the subtitles, I would guess they are recently recruited actors. To me, it feels more like classical Greek drama than realism. But that's okay with me: fiction can be truer than fact, to reverse the old cliché. Though flawed, the film is powerful at the emotional level. The cinematography is spectacular. I came out feeling I had a deeper understanding of the tragic history of Afghanistan

All cultural values are in some senses relative. We make criticise, say, the Taliban regime in Afghanistan for forcing women to wear the burka; but our own society enforces different standards with regard to the male and female exposure of the chest. We might therefore say that the burka is oppressive not so much in itself but rather as part of a system that undermines the freedom of women; but this is to assume that in our sexist, and over-sexualised, society, women are in practice freer. In fact, I believe they are; but at some level it is important to acknowledge the arbitrariness of such positions at the deepest level; that they depend on prejudice (to use that word non-prejudicially), on values rather than reason. To argue that because we know nothing for certain we should therefore do nothing, think nothing is a doctrine of futile despair; but to be aware of the limitations of our own thinking, to know that for certain future generations will surely condemn us are clearly as we condemn others, is vital before we consider the values of societies other than our own, a secular equivalent of humility before God.This is not to say I would like to see a film defending the appalling Taliban. But even the most tyrannical regime is in some regards the product of the society it tyrannises: we are all both prisoners and guards. To understand that regime (and its true horrors), one needs to understand how it worked with, as well as against, the grain of traditional society; and what is good, as well as what is bad, about that. Unfortunately, this is not what we get with 'Kandahar'.It's a shame, because this film contains the potential material for exploring the ambiguity of life. Its central character is rude, arrogant and ambitious (a journalist travelling to Afghanistan to try and save her sister, she doesn't hesitate to try to try and make a story out of her ordeal at the same time). A returning exile, she might be considered as both having the right to criticise what is happening to her country and also the eyes of one who has seen enough to know what is wrong. But one could just as easily say that she has neither that in fact she has the rights to neither position. There is thus the potential to portray her with great ambivalence; but 'Kandahar' prefers the values of propaganda. So instead she is our witness, our seer and our reliable narrator; and the film is all the weaker for it.'Kandahar' contains some great footage of a bleak but beautiful country, but at times its limited budget shows. The dialgoue is strange, the second most important character is (bizarrely) an American, and a number of the scenes sit uneasily between documentary and fiction: Michael Winterbottom did something similar in 'In This World', but that film was more convincing, because the agenda of the director was less clumsily imposed on every scene. 'Kandahar' has neither documentary truth or dramatic ambiguity; and seems to view the world with a very Western slant. Perhaps evil is like Schroedinger's cat: something that can be labelled or shown, but not both at the same time. 'Kandahar' prefers to label; but I prefer more subtlety in my films.