Kandahar Details

2001

60
from 900 members

Starring	Niloufar Pazira, Hassan Tantai, Sadou Teymouri, Hayatalah Hakimi
Director	Moshen Makhmalbaf
Genres	Drama, World Cinema

Kandahar

Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf presents this partially fictionalized documentary that illustrates the suffering of Afghan women under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in the year 2000. The quiet, stark, powerful film follows an Afghan native, Nafas (the stunningly beautiful Noulifar Pazira), who left Afghanistan years back and got a journalism degree in Canada, upon which she built a career reporting the plight of women in oppressive nations. When she receives a letter from her sister, who is still in Afghanistan and who has decided that she will kill herself on the night of the next eclipse, Nafas decides to sneak back inside the border to rescue her. Traveling in a Red Cross helicopter to Pakistan, where she is lead on a treacherous all-night trek across an icy river and over deadly mountains, Nafas finally crosses over the border. But from there she must get to Kandahar, with only three days left before the eclipse. As a woman in Afghanistan she cannot speak out loud, travel without a husband, or show her face, elements which make her journey nearly impossible. Disguised in a heavy head-to-toe burka (the mandatory dress for women), she begins a Kafkaesque journey across the barren land, encountering obstacles both threatening and mesmerizing along the way.

Starring	Niloufar Pazira, Hassan Tantai, Sadou Teymouri, Hayatalah Hakimi
Director	Moshen Makhmalbaf
Studio	ICA PROJECTS LTD
Run time	DVD: 1 hr 25 mins
Certificate
Genres	Drama, World Cinema
Language	DVD: Farsi
Subtitles	DVD: English
Released	Production year: 2001 To Rent: DVD: not available To Buy: DVD: 26 Aug 2002

Critic's review of Kandahar
View all critics' reviews (4)
- "...[Makhmalbaf's] artful deployment of colour, imagery and irony frequently gives a strange otherworldliness to what, in other hands, would be straight reportage..."
- 10490
- - Sight and Sound
  - 11 Mar 2005 at 12:59
Most helpful member's review of Kandahar
View all members' reviews (18)
- - 8
  - 5
  Like Pulling Teeth
  
  The title of this film is interesting and the plot is simple. An Afghan woman returns to Afghanistan to save her sister who was accidentally left behind when ... read more »
  
  Report this review
- 293150
- [Highly rated reviewer]
  - AndyMoore
  - Isle of Wight
  - 14 Oct 2003 at 13:59
Most recent members' reviews of Kandahar
View all members' reviews (18)
- - 0
  - 1
  one to avoid
  
  I do like art films and can tolerate a slow pace and do not mind foreign languages even without sub-titles.
  
  This film is very slow paced and has ... read more »
  
  Report this review
- 763164
- - amalantrah
  - 2 reviews
  - London
  - 27 May 2009 at 18:26
- - 0
  - 0
  Customer Review
  
  I though this was a fantastic movie. Not much like the sort of thing which normally comes out of Hollywood, although I love those as well. The acting is awful ... read more »
  
  Report this review
- 579553
- - a customer
  - UK
  - 23 Jun 2008 at 15:22
- - 1
  - 0
  Topical film
  
  Burkas have been in the news a lot recently, and this film certainly has many in it. It... read more »
  
  Report this review
- 377498
- - Cato
  - 589 reviews
  - Lydbury North
  - 24 Oct 2006 at 17:03
View all members' reviews (18)
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