Director Christophe de Ponfilly met Afghan chief Ahmed Shah Massoud in 1981, while filming the movie "Une vallee contre un empire" in the Middle East. Years later, de Ponfilly returned to see Massoud, the commander of the Afghan resistance movement, in the hour of his last great battle, as he planned his offensive against the Taliban.
Massoud's story is an epic, but also a tragedy, the record of a tenacious, humane fighter who was also the prisoner (and ultimately the victim) of history.
An invaluable historical document thanks to the filmmaker's extraordinary access to Massoud, whose charm, cultivation and devotion to his people are readily apparent.
The most revealing images--those of Massoud at his most vulnerable--are buried under mounds of poorly edited footage and [de Ponfilly's] own boyish admiration.
History has since overtaken Ponfilly's film, which now more than ever seems like but one chapter in a much larger story -- the ongoing tragedy of Afghanistan -- and a tragic tribute to all that might have been.
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