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Kandahar (2001)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 95
Fresh: 84
Rotten:11
Average Rating: 7.5/10
Consensus: Eerily timely, Kandahar offers haunting images of a bleak land.
Theatrical Release:Dec 14, 2001 Limited
Synopsis: 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... 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. [More]
Starring: Niloufar Pazira, Hassan Tantai, Sadou Teymouri, Hayatalah Hakimi
Starring: Niloufar Pazira, Hassan Tantai, Sadou Teymouri, Hayatalah Hakimi
Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Screenwriter: Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Producer: Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Composer: Mahamed Reza Darvishi
Studio: Avatar Films
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Reviews for Kandahar
As with so much in the Islamic world, there are things here that are profoundly beautiful, as well as much that is profoundly scary.
I would have recommended "Kandahar" at any time; current events make it a must-see film.
The result is stunning -- both as a narrative film and as a document of the place and time.
Kandahar consistently feels as if it was shot on the fly, which fuels its sense of urgency and deepens its emotional weight.
This film is more didactic and less cinematic than I might like, but Makhmalbaf speaks from the heart and the film should be judged accordingly.
Both a fine example of the striking work being done by contemporary Iranian filmmakers and a near-documentary testament to the painful modern history of Afghanistan.
Although a surreal darkness pervades several passages of Kandahar, through the misfortune of its timing, it's curiously tame.
[Let me] remove the wool over so many critics’ eyes and call Kandahar what it is: a boring, pedantic and obvious story [lent some] timeliness by the events of Sept. 11.
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