KANDAHAR

KANDAHAR - 2001

RATED - NR but probably G.

RATINGS - 25 Amazon (3.5/5), 42,647 (3.3/5), 2,582 IMDB (6.7/10), Roger Ebert (3.5/4).

THEMES - Injustice, Gender Discrimination, Evil.

AWARDS - Many film festival nominations and several wins.

STORY - This is more of a docudrama than a film with a plot and satisfying ending along with character development. Roger Ebert says it well: "KANDAHAR does not provide deeply drawn characters, memorable dialogue or an exciting climax. Its traffic is in images..." It is the images that stick. This was made before 9/11 to show the persecution of women in Afghanistan. It is partially based on a true story involving Nelofer Pazira (Nafas), an Afghan-born Canadian journalist. In the film she has received a letter from her sister who was left behind when the family evacuated Russian-controlled Afghanistan. Her sister, now living under the rule of the Taliban, no longer wants to go on living and has given a date, the lunar eclipse, when she will commit suicide. The letter was delayed in getting to Nafas and she has arrived at the Iranian-Afghan border with only three days until the eclipse. As a woman, she is not free to travel alone into Afghanistan. She must arrange for some male assistance. The rest of the film is about her journey to find her sister. Along the way she meets a Black American disguised as an Afghan medical doctor, a Red Cross camp helping land mine victims who have lost legs. The image of the doctor (he doesn't know she is from Canada initially) asking questions of Nafas thru a third party and being separated by a sheet with a hole to examine her ears, eyes and mouth would be humorous, if not true. A Red Cross helicopter makes a 'leg drop', parachuting artificial legs to the camp below and we are overwhelmed by the image of several dozen amputees with crutches literally racing each other to get a pair of legs. The image of a her young male guide (10-12 years old) pulling a ring off a skeleton in the desert and trying to sell it to her is wrenching. Once again, we are struck by the incredible cruelty that the human race is capable of inflicting on one another, simply because of race or gender. You will probably not remember the plot but you will remember the images, images the reinforce the knowledge that there is both good and evil in this world and we must counter evil wherever we find it. A sobering film. Lu G. for Lu's Reviews. 09/13/2008.

LINKS - AMAZON, IMDB, ROGER EBERT.