Since Sept. 11, America has discovered more about Afghanistan and the Taliban. Many television shows and articles have been written about the type of lives Afghans lead, but nothing tells of the hunger and devastation of this country like Kandahar, a gem of a film opening this Friday at Studio on the Square.
Nelofer Pazina, a radio and television journalist whose family migrated to Canada in 1989, when she was a teenager, received many letters from a friend who was still in the family’s hometown of Kabul.
As the Taliban government seized power, Pazina’s friend’s letters became more and more despondent. Pazina was worried about her, and decided to go to Afghanistan to save her friend when she received a letter that made her believe her friend was contemplating suicide.
All she needed was a way to get into the country. She decided to call Mohsen Makhmalbaf, an Iranian director who had already made one movie about Afghani refugees, but he was not able to help her. After being inspired by her story, he decided to adapt a movie about her situation and asked Pazina to star in it.
The film crew shot the movie on the Iran-Afghanistan border, where they were threatened on a daily basis. The movie has no professional actors in it, and most of the extras had never even seen a movie, so Makhmalbaf had to explain the fundamental aspects of making a film to them. Another obstacle the filmmaker had to overcome was that most of the Afghan tribes spoke different languages and some refused to appear in scenes together.
Kandahar is about a journalist who migrated to Canada but left her sister and father behind. Nafas (Nelofer Pazina) is in search for her sister, who has stated her intention to commit suicide on the last solar eclipse of the millennium.
Nafas faces many inward and outward struggles on her journey. She meets an American militant involved in providing assistance to local villagers, a young boy who was kicked out of school and a prosthesis peddler.
Nafas, although an Afghan woman, does not feel as though she is part of the culture anymore. She pulls her burqa off at many times and cannot stand to be burdened with it. Nafas is an independent woman who is trapped between helping her sister and leaving immediately with what is left of her own identity.
Kandahar, named best movie of 2001 by Time magazine, tries hard to include a sense of hope, especially for Nafas’ plight. It is not a “feel-good” movie, but the audience does sense they can be of aid to these people by learning about them. There is an overwhelming feeling of grief and sorrow for their situations, but the plot moves the story along very nicely.
