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Actors: Nelofer Pazira, Hassan Tantai
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about Kandahar |
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A young Canadian woman named Nafas (Pazira) has managed to travel to Iran in hopes of making her way across the war-torn border into Kandahar Afghanistan. She seeks her sister who has vowed to kill herself at the time of the last solar eclipse of the millennium rather than submit to an arranged marriage. As a western educated woman Nafas is appalled at the draconian restrictions she finds placed upon the female inhabitants of Afghanistan. Referred to as "black heads", they have no rights, are refused any form of education, cannot travel unescorted by a male, and must be covered head to foot by a burka. Nafas hires a family to take her from Iran into Afghanistan but is abandoned by the patriarchal father/husband when bandits rob their traveling party of their vehicle and possessions.
Eventually she falls in with a young boy named Khak (Teymouri) recently expelled by the mullah from his religious/military training school. For $50 Khak leads her toward Kandahar. They must first seek a doctor (Tantai) when she falls ill from drinking disease riddled water wells. The doctor turns out to be an black American who has fought for years in Afghanistan but after spending time in a Kandahar prison has become a medical practitioner despite a lack of formal training. He takes her to a Red Cross station where land mine victims wait for artificial legs to be dropped from planes by relief agencies. She must take her chances with a lying, one-handed thief named Hayat (Hakimi) to get her to her sister in time.
--David Fletcher, Resident Scholar
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Kandahar is a film about a woman trying to find her sister in the baron lands of Afghanastan. Her sister is about to commit suicide because she does not want to go forth with an arranged marriage. The main character, Nafas, is an Afghan woman who has lived in America for some years, but is very competent with the Arab culture she must adapt to.
Kandahar has a complex series of events which lead her to making friends and helping other people on the way. Apart from her health, Nafas remains confident and strong throughout. Subsequent characters introduced help and hider Nafas, but they are all representaqtion of the diminishing situation in the middle east.
The sheer fact that parts of the film were shot in secret on the Afghanastan border is amazing.
--BJ O'Donovan, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of Kandahar |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Time/era of movie:
- present (2000-2010)
Polit/Social/Race/Gender activism
Yes
Plotlet:
- girls fighting for rights
Ethnic/Regional/Gender story?
Yes
Woman/class/friends story?
- woman's story
Culture of surrounding area:
- Arabic
Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Profession/status:
- writer
- student
Age:
- 20's-30's
- 40's-50's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Hair color?
- brunette (Black)
Hair type
- (woman) medium/shoulderlgn straight
- (woman) medium/shoulderlgn wavey
Body type
- (woman) average
Events of movie makes character more...
- sad
Ethnicity/Nationality
- Arab
- Canadian
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
- hard edged
Sense of humor?
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Hair color
- brunette (Black)
Hair style
- (man) short/standard curly
Body type
- (man) average build
How much in movie?
- 20%
- 40%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- Black
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
- a deadline
Age:
- 40's-50's
Profession/status:
- unemployed
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- 20%
Hair color
- brunette (Black)
Hair type
- (man) short/standard straight
Body type
- (man) skinny
Ethnicity/Nationality
- Arab
How sensitive is this character?
- mean, arrogant
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- missing body parts/abilities
Setting
Asia/Pacific/Middle East
Yes
Asian country:
- The 'stans
Desert?
Yes
Desert:
- hostile arabs
Misc setting
- school
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
- moderately detailed references to deaths
Movie makes you feel...
- frustrated
Non-American film?
Yes
Subtitles?
- Yes
Any profanity?
- None
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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