Customer Reviews

Kandahar [VHS]

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I can't vouch the following is how Kandahar's author, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, would describe his film. I can't even say whether, living in Iran, Makhmalbaf feels free to say what he means, otherwise than through film. However, he has put up a long background document on Afghanistan at http://www.makhmalbaf.com/articles.asp?pa=1&a=a16

What I saw is a semi-documentary set in a desertic area of Afghanistan, built of long sequences each of which is very telling, admirably constructed and visually beautiful. In fact, the film has been criticized for its beauty. The topic about which the images are so telling, is what Afghan society (which is essentially rural) has been reduced to by twenty years of war, and especially the state of the female half of that society.

The sequences are linked together by the fictional component. A 21-year old Afghan refugee from Ottawa, Canada, working as a journalist, wants to reach her sister in Kandahar before she commits suicide on the eclipse. The sister told her about her plan in a letter sent three months before, but events have left our protagonist on the Iranian border three days before the eclipse. The sequences occur as she progresses towards Kandahar. The sister has never left Afghanistan because on the way out with the rest of the family, 15 years before, she stepped on a mine and lost her legs. Her father remained with her, but he is now dead.

The Canadian sister will never reach Kandahar. As the film ends, she has been caught by the Taliban, to no one's surprise. I surmise she will either be taken up as booty by a commander, for a Xth wife or concubine, or will be raped by soldiers, as booty again, and left to fend as a prostitute until caught again and executed. She may well live no longer than her sister.

In my reading the protagonist's naive self-centeredness is meant to set off the non-fictional images. There is a visual leitmotif translating this egocentrism. On all occasions, the girl keeps dictating her precious thoughts and "candles of hope" for her sister into a small tape recorder -- in English, which of course her sister can't understand: she's dictating to her own sensitive self. Her attachment to the machine is the reason she gets caught.

A second English-speaking character is provided, who is as full of modesty and truth as she is blind and vapid. This is an American black Muslim who came to Afghanistan over fifteen years before looking for God by fighting the Russians, and has now learned to simply look for opportunities to do good.

There is an unfinished dialog on the topic of hope, and, reading between the lines, my perception is that the endless war has cleansed Afghan society of any occasion for hope, especially for women, and that this cleansing is simply expressed through the Taliban. Hence the importance of doing good because it is good, and not because it is a "candle of hope".

Whether or not I am right in any of this, I am sure Kandahar will tell you much also, of things that cannot be written but can be shown.

This Iranian film was made before the horrible events of 9/11 etched the name of Kandahar into our consciousness. This film is NOT a documentary. It is a fictionalized story of an Afghan woman, Nafas, a Canadian journalist, who returns to Afghanistan during the reign of the Taliban to search for her sister.

Filmed in Iran, it nevertheless gives us a feel for the bleak sun-dried landscape of Afghanistan. Here, the woman wear burkas, they are not allowed to go to school, and they must constantly look out for land mines. During the course of the film Nafas has disguises herself as a fourth wife of a man returning to Afghanistan from Iran, is helped by a young boy who has to eke out a living the best way he can after being thrown out of a religious school, sickens and meets a doctor who speaks English and joins a one-armed man and a group of women on their way to a wedding in Kandahar.

There is horror and oppression everywhere, not just for the women, but also for everyone under Taliban rule. Saddest of all are the victims of the land mines. There are several scenes in a Red Cross station about this, with the dozens of one-legged men who are in constant pain and who wait for the helicopters to drop prosthetic legs from the sky.

Nelofer Pazura, a real-life Canadian journalist who was born in Kabul and therefore speaks both Parsi and English, plays the part of Nafas. She is beautiful with wide sad blue eyes and she plays this role as if in a dream, her face expressionless whenever she lifts her burka. The film is upsetting and not for everyone and some of the images will haunt me for a long time. I do recommend it. But don't expect to leave the theater smiling.

This is an intriguing film by renowned Iranian director Mosen Makhmalbaf. It is a brief, fascinating peek at Afghanistan under the Taliban regime. Filmed before the September 11, 2001 attack on the World trade Center took place, it offers a tantalizing glimpse into a country in which few of us can imagine living.

The premise of the film revolves around an Afghani woman named Nafas (Niloufar Pazira), who has emigrated to Canada but finds herself returning years later to her homeland after her sister, who had remained behind in Afghanistan, writes her a letter announcing her intention to end her life at the time of the next solar eclipse.

In the film, Nafas is journeying to her sister in Kandahar. She finds her country, a mosaic of ethnic and linguistic communities, totally devastated by two decades of war. It is through her eyes that the viewer sees the extreme views that have overrun her country. It is through her eyes that the viewer sees the tragedy that is Afghanistan.

The viewer sees that education is firmly in the hands of the Mullahs, the local religious leaders who practice and instruct young boys in a strict fundamentalist interpretation of Islam. It is an ideology that is interwoven with a chilling militancy. Despite the extreme views propounded by the Mullahs, mothers struggle to get their boys in these schools, so as to be assured that their sons will get your basic three hots and a cot in this land of famine.

Moreover, the issue of the role of women under such a repressive regime is also looked at. The viewer sees how the women are treated, denied an education, and referred to in collective, pejorative terms (black heads), due to the burkhas they are forced to wear, at all times. The viewer also sees the devastation that war has brought to this country in terms of land mines and consequent maimings. The results of famine and poor health care are also apparent throughout the course of this film.

As a story, the film promises but, ultimately, fails to deliver a very satisfactory ending. Metaphorically, however, it delivers. Just as her sister's end is near, the end of Afghanistan under this repressive Taliban regime is also near. The film is positively prophetic, when viewed in a metaphoric light.

Though the story line is left to drift as a backdrop for the bigger picture story alluded to through the stunning cinematography, the film still manages to succeed. The film, shot entirely in natural light due to the lack of electricity on location, is vivid with its imagery of a culture and lifestyle so alien to those of us living with and surrounded by creature comforts.

The beautiful Niloufar Pazira, who is not a professional actress but, rather, an Afghani born journalist living in Canada, is wonderful as Nafas. The cast of unknown locals contribute to the vitality of this film, which is a must see for those who are interested in other cultures or in the human condition. Filmed on the Iran-Afghanistan border, the film is based in part on a similar journey to Kabul that Niloufar Pazira had herself earlier attempted in response to a letter from a despondent childhood friend. That journey was never completed due to the danger inherent in such a trip.

The DVD offers superlative visuals and a crystal clear audio but has only a few limited bonus options or special features. It contains an interesting featurette entitled, "Lifting the Veil", which is a documentary that centers around Ms. Pazira. It tells the viewer about her extraordinary life and how it came about that this film was made.

There is also a film commentary by Ms. Pazira. What is interesting about the commentary is that it is not from a director's perspective. The commentary is from a very personal perspective and details what is meant to be conveyed by this film. Those who listen to the commentary will know that the film is about much more than its basic story line about Nafas finding her sister. The film is about Afghanistan.

When "Kandahar" was shown in Cannes in May/01, it was another film from an exotique country with exotique culture and traditions. Now, after September 11th, it all comes down to be a movie about a place where everybody is watching closely. I have to admit that I was most interested in this movie because it takes palce in that region, but after watching it, I changed my opinion.

It is the story of an Afghan journalist, Nafas,-- who now lives in Canada - and receives a letter from her sister telling she'll commit suicide during the last eclipse of the XX Century. Then Nafas decides to fly back to her country in order to try to convince her sister not to kill herself. But before reaching her, the journalist has much more trouble in arriving in Kandahar. The film shows her journey and all people she meets through it and the problems she runs up against when in the way to Kandahar . In the background we see many costumes of this region and how living with terrosrism in everyday life is. And the beauty of this exotique land - I have to bring up that the film opens with an extremely beautiful image of an eclipse.

I usually have some difficult in undersand Iranian films at the first time I see them. Maybe it's because it's a very different culture with different values, but it doesn't mean I don't like them. This "Kandahar" was an exception. I really appreciated very much only watching it once -- I'll probably watch it again soon. You may feel amazed with the settings and the lighting, but what counts more here is the reality of these people. It's touching seeing children been taught no to touch dolls and teddy bears the find on the floor because these toys may carry mine and seriously hurt these children. Moreover, the film made take a different look into my life itself. I mean I have problems -- as everybody does -- , but they are so small when compared with those people's problems. Some of them have to wait up to one to receive a pair of rough legs because they have lost their own in a mining field.

All in all, the end is very touching -- I won't give it to you --, and the very last lines resonated in my mind for hours. Although Nafas journey is to save her sister, it becomes a way of her own rendemption and discover. Kudos to the director Mohsen Makhmakbaf and to the actress Nelofer Pazira, who had lived a very similar situation which inspired the movie.

I saw this film when it opened here in Houston, and I just loved it. Kandahar is a deep journey into the unknown world of Afghanistan, being that it was unknown to the West for a very long time. It is the journey of a woman that returns to this world when she finds out that her sister is about to commit suicide. A rediscovery of the past and a realization of the present, Kandahar does not only show the horrors, the different mentalities of the afghan people, the culture, and the precarious condition of women and women's rights, but it also shows the personal and intimate journey of this woman, Nafas, into the world she left behind years ago, into herself, and into the injustices and obstacles that she encounters every step she takes. Beautiful and emotional scenery, colorful burquas and bracelets, and the cleverness of a great director make Kandahar one of the best movies that I have seen in my entire life. And the most important thing, I believe, is that Kandahar is a movie about hope, a desperate cry for hope of the people, especially the women, of Afghanistan. Nafas never stops her journey to Kandahar to find her sister, she persists and will not stop until she finds her. A journey of hope, a journey into an unknown world, a journey into deep sadness and hope, the hope of the women of Afghanistan is that one day they will be able to remove their burquas and let the rest of the world finally look at them once and for all.

'kandahar' is both a journey and a diary. Nafas is a Canadian Afghan whose family left the country decades ago. She has undertaken a perilous journey to her former homeland to plead with the sister they left behind, disabled by a landmine accident and now living in suicidal despair under the dark terror of the Taliban. Disguised in a burka, Nafas' journey takes the picaresque form common in Iranian cinma, meeting different people who advance her understanding or experience of modern Afghanistan, from her young guide expelled from mullah school; to the disillusioned African-American who came to the country for spiritual truth and now acts as a doctor in a gender-apartheid tent despite no medical training; to the limbless landmine victims waiting around a Red Cross encampment for the next consignment of plastic legs; to the completely-covered celebrants travelling across the desert for a wedding. At the same time, Nafas records a diary Dale Cooper-style into a dictaphone, articulating her thoughts with a clarity at odds with the unaccountable events she witnesses. This race against time is also a jounrey into an alternative past, into the desperate life she could have lived if she hadn't escaped. She learns to see, paradoxically, by blinding herself with her mask.

Much has been made of the Surrealist quality of Makhmalbaf's imagery, from the magical sight of replacement limbs parachuting from the sky, men in crutches scrambling after them; to the doctor's tent consultations, where the patient is reduced to fetishised fragments viewed through a hole; to the dressing of mannequin-like legs in a woman's gown by a husband in the mirror; to the recurring sight of anonymous refugees filing the vast, empty desert- and brush-scapes. But whereas this kind of imagery is familiar enough from European literature and film, where they operate as metaphors for the human condition - here, they are the human condition; they are a reality as ghastly unreality, where all norms and identities have been destroyed by an authority as all-seeing as the sun, whose sole aim seems to be to undermine order, to destroy people's faith in the stability of signs, structures, inevitability. What in Surrealism was supposed to be a blow against the oppressive everyday world in this context becomes the method of the oppressors. It is the most disorienting switch in cultural perspective since former Surrealist photographer Lee Miller shot the death camps in Dachau. As in all Mokhmalbaf's films, documentary and fiction, reality and fantasy, the grey desert and dazzling colours, silence and music, misery and comedy, dissolve boundaries and offer a kind of formal space or freedom against the vile content of authoritarianism.

I love middle eastern films. So count on me to rarely give a low rating. Most of them are worth the rating.

This movie is about a woman who tries to save her sister before the next eclipse- which is coming very soon. It speaks about her travels through Iran to Afganistan. And believe me she has many trials, but someone always helped her. I am not going to share too much about this movie because I feel it will give it away, but I would recommend the DVD version and NOT the VHS. Why?

There is also autobiogrpahy of the director of this movie who is also the lead actress. It explains why she made this movie in the first place.

However the reason why I give this movie 4 stars and not 5, because I expected a little more. Although, she shows how women must be covered head to toe and there's a scene that shows of a mother who cannot work and is in much grief because of the rules- this is really all we get from what's going on inside of Afganistan. So with that, I am a little disappointed

However the film is beautiful in all respect and I would recommend anyone to see it.

Born an Afghani, now a Canadian, Nafas (Niloufar Pazira) receives a letter from her sister who is still living in Afghanistan. Her sister tells Nafas that she can no longer live in the oppressive conditions of their homeland, and she intends to commit suicide on the last eclipse of the 20th century. Nafas journeys to Afghanistan and tries desperately to reach her sister in Kandahar before the day of the eclipse. She carries with her a tape recorder on which she records the details of her journey in hopes that the stories and voices on that tape will give her sister some reason to live. Nafas enters the country through the Iranian border and must rely on the aid of others to lead her to Kandahar. She takes any opportunity she can to get closer to Kandahar and enlists the aid of an itinerant family, a young boy (Sadou Teymouri), an American-born doctor (Hassan Tantai), and a con artist in her struggle to reach her sister before the eclipse.

"Kandahar" is a thoughtful and beautiful film directed by acclaimed Iranian director Mohsen Makmalbaf, but it doesn't have much of a narrative. What we see is a journey more than a story. The film isn't long, but it has a languid pace, which is appropriate for traveling across a desert. Nafas is in a big hurry to reach her sister, so the film's pace also helps us empathize with her frustration. But "Kandahar" doesn't seem to be about Nafas or her sister. Nafas' quest is a vehicle for the images that "Kandahar" presents us with, images that are both strikingly beautiful and sadly absurd: a group of one-legged men racing to catch prosthetic limbs that have been dropped by parachute from a plane, a group of people clad in astonishingly bright burquas walking across the dessert, a boy who has been expelled from mullah school trading clothes with the boy who will take his place, another boy taking a lovely ring from the finger of a half-buried skeleton. We have read about the appalling conditions in Afghanistan, and you can see them up close in this film. But "Kandahar"'s images are the film's real strength and the reason to see it. They will stick with you the way that still photographs do because they are so eye-catching and so odd.

A woman sets out to rescue her sister in the Afghan city of Kandahar and along the way meets the displaced persons of war, the refugees, the starving, and the walking wounded. The film focuses in particular on the women and children forced to survive under hostile conditions. Their marginal existence in the desert sands on the border of Iran and Afghanistan reflects their status within the Taliban-ruled country from which they live in exile. Even more dramatically, the film explores the plight of those who have lost limbs from land mines.

Particularly informative is the commentary by actress Nelofer Pazira that is included on the DVD. Her comments reveal in eloquent detail not only the making of the movie (shot where it takes place) but the rationale behind the creative choices made, often on the fly, as the film crew worked under difficult and dangerous conditions. While western news coverage continues to focus on the military and political aspects of warfare in the Middle East, "Kandahar" does much to reveal the devastating impact on noncombatants. Definitely worth seeing.

Kandahar is a semi-documentary about Nafas, a female reporter exiled from Afghanistan and residing in Canada. Her journey takes her into Afghanistan and the city of Kandahar during the Taliban rule. Her reason to get to Kandahar is to save her sister who has communicated that she intends to commit suicide during the next solar eclipse. Her sister could not escape with the family to Canada, since she lost her legs to a landmine in their attempt to escape the country. Now Nafas wants to get back to Afghanistan and save her sister; however, on the road to Kandahar she faces the true rule of the Taliban and understands the misfortune of the people and her sister in Afghanistan. Kandahar is an exceptionally personal film in many aspects. For example, Nafas is constantly defenseless, since she must put her trust into people she does not know, and this builds up a strong connection between Nafas and the audience. In addition, many scenes cause the audience to ponder why Nafas's sister would consider suicide. In the end, this film builds up a plethora of insights of how life might have been in Afghanistan during the Taliban rule and how women might be suffering around the world.