Kandahar
Screening: 9 November 2002 (supper evening)
France/Iran 2001 (subtitles)
85 minutes
Directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Leading players - Niloufar Pazira, Hassan Tantaï and Sadou Teymouri.
Synopsis
Niloufar Pazira plays Nafas, an Afghan-born journalist living in Canada who fled her country as a teenager leaving behind her sister who was maimed by a landmine during the escape. Despondent over her oppressed and hopeless situation in Taliban-controlled Kandahar, she sends Nafas a letter in which she outlines her plan to kill herself during the last eclipse of the century, which happens in a mere three days. Desperately racing against time, Nafas sets out on a perilous journey into a land where it’s illegal for women to travel alone. Covered by the required and restrictive burqa, her faceless character meets others along the way who reveal a different but real facet of life as experienced by the people of Afghanistan.* * * * * *
Filmed in neighbouring Pakistan, the events and characters in the film are inspired by Niloufar’s own attempt to enter Afghanistan to save her friend, Dyana, living under the Taliban regime. Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s beautiful and courageous film was made in early 2001 as a response to the horrific reality of the situation in Afghanistan which he felt at the time was being ignored. On release the film was too, winning the lesser-known Ecumenical Jury Prize at Cannes that year. But after September 11, Kandahar became the film that everyone, even George Bush, wanted to see, and deservedly so. Its deceptively simple documentary style and aesthetically beautiful cinematography combine to tell a chilling tale that still celebrates the resilience of the human spirit.
