By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Starring: Hassan Tantai | Niloufar Pazira | Sadou Teymouri
Original language title: Safar e Ghandehar
Country: france, iran
Year: 2002
Running time: 85
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0283431/reference
Ellen says: “Okay, basically I would not want to be a woman (or a man for that matter) in Afghanistan. This film shows the horrific way of life that these people lead. An interesting slice of life that I never really have an opportunity to see.” 4 1/2 cats
Esmé says: “Last night I finally watched KANDAHAR. It’s the story of an Afghan woman who defected as a young girl to Canada, who is trying to get to Kandahar to save her sister whose legs were blown off by a land mine and wrote a letter from a refugee camp that she was going to commit suicide on the last eclipse of the millennium (about three days from the start of the movie). I won’t tell you if she got there in time, but I will tell you that this movie was shot in such a way, that half the time it felt like a documentary and half the time it felt like a feature. There are many scenes of what is today, the day-to-day existence of women covered head to toe, men fighting for prosthetic legs, boy children being trained as mujahadin (sp?), and girls taught how not to step on mines. The reporter trying to get to her sister keeps a tape recorder and talks to her throughout the movie about why she should live, what her observations are about the changes in their country, and at one point she asks a doctor she meets on the way(there is more to that story) to say something about hope into the recorder. Devastating movie.” 5 cats
Laura says: “Makhmalbaf used a similar story which was told to him to fashion this dismaying yet poetic journey. His images are startling. Jewel colored burkas have never looked more beautiful and at the same time more horrifyingly nullifying. We see lips speaking through the slit of a burka made strangely foreign by Nafas’ use of English. Approaching a Red Cross tent in the middle of the desert, a flock of black clad, one-legged men on crutches race toward an artificial leg dropping from the sky in a parachute. The beauty of the women can only be seen in their children, ironically made up with heavily kohled eyes.” 5 cats
For Laura’s complete review: “http://www.reelingreviews.com/kandahar.htm”
Michael says: “KANDAHAR is the tale of one woman’s journey. Superficially, Nafas is returning to her native Afghanistan from Canada, to save her sister. On the last full moon of the century, Nafas’ sister, who lost her legs in a mine accident, will commit suicide. Now Nafas must race against time to arrive in Kandahar in time to prevent the tragedy. Along the way, she must record in her tape recorder, the hope that her sister has lost.
“Nafas is our guide as a woman arriving in Iran. We watch as she must cover herself completely with the traditional burka, and find her way to Kandahar without any of the rights or status befitting a western woman. We witness with her, the horrors of a war-torn country, and the irony of women, completely hidden from view, putting on lipstick and other makeup.
” KANADAHAR is powerful, with some unforgettable images. None of the actors are professionals, which shows a bit, but this is still a film not to miss.” 4 1/2 cats
Robin says: “The sheer artistry of the images of KANDAHAR is, alone, a reason to seek out this terrific film but there is more to it than just good looks. Nafas’s vain attempt to save her sister’s life is gut-wrenchingly vivid in showing the desperate hopelessness of her cause. The hard, dangerous life of the Afghans is punctuated with a look at a Red Cross station where two female doctors dole out artificial legs to the ever-growing population who are victims of the many land mines scattered and forgotten across the war-torn country. The picture of the dozens of one-legged men racing across the desert to lay claim to one of the fake limbs being dropped by the humanitarians is shocking, beautiful and extraordinarily emotional.” 5 cats
For Robin’s complete review: “http://www.reelingreviews.com/kandahar.htm”