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By PAUL BRENNER
In the dry and barren expanse of the Afghan desert a women in a burka asks,
"Shall I recite the Koran for your dead?" to a starved, parched Afghani and he
replies, "We are the dead. Sing for us." In Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf's
"Kandahar" -- released on DVD from New Yorker Video -- the Afghan people under
the Taliban rule are depicted as scattered groups of devastated cripples, moving
back and forth in a hopeless circle between the border of Iran and the sandy
wasteland of Afghan, victimized by the extreme fundamentalism of the Taliban and
bands of itinerant bandits (without any distinction between the two groups).
Makhmalbaf's film concerns an Afghan-born woman who escaped from Afghanistan and
now lives in Canada (Nelofer Parzira -- the film is based on her experiences)
who decides to sneak back into Afghanistan to try to rescues her sister after
receiving a despondent letter from her. The letter reveals that the sister is
depressed over her injuries from a landmine and her horrid treatment as a woman
under the Taliban and vows to kill herself during the next solar eclipse.
Parzira's journey serves as a foundation for a collection of horrors ambled upon
by Makhmalbaf's camera -- men praising God while being robbed of all their
possessions, boys in a prayer study group being asked by the presiding mullah
"What is a saber?" and "What is a Kalashnikov?" women in burkas being "examined"
be a doctor through a mouth hole in a blanket, legless men on crutches running
after prosthetic limbs dropped from helicopters in the sky. In unflinching
terms, Makhmalbaf illustrates how poverty and devastation can be the breeding
ground for militancy and extremism. The film should be required viewing for the
Washington Brain Trust.
The extensive special features include a Makhmalbaf biography, a featurette on
Parzira from CTV, a photo gallery, the international theatrical trailer,
trailers for "Life & Debt," "The Bank," and "Second Skin," a Parzira biography,
and an audio commentary track with Parzira. The film is in Farsi and English,
with English and French subtitles. |
