Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
Kandahar (2001)
Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Now living in Canadian exile, Afghan journalist Nafas returns to her country's border with Iran after receiving a letter from her younger sister, who warns that she intends to commit suicide during an imminent eclipse of the sun. Nafas tries to reach the girl in Kandahar, but en route repeatedly encounters obstacles: the fear, wariness and dishonesty of those she asks to escort her, poverty and illness, the threat of landmines, the Taliban oppression of women. Makhmalbaf's film is characteristically jam-packed with metaphors and striking visual epiphanies - artificial legs being parachuted into the desert are even used twice! - and certainly packs some sort of visceral punch as it depicts the harsh realities of life in Afghanistan. But there are also enough clumsy or obvious moments, uncertainties of tone and brazenly rhetorical flourishes to seed doubts about just how heartfelt it all is. Moreover, by attacking the Taliban regime so fiercely, is Makhmalbaf serving as an apologist for, say, the treatment of women in Iran, or implicitly criticising certain aspects of his own country as well? As so often with his work, it's hard to know for sure.Author: GA
Cast & crew
Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Producer: Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Cast: Niloufar Pazira, Hassan Tantaï, Sadou Teymouri, Hayatalah Hakimi full cast
Duration: 85 mins
Most popular on this site
Features
To the letter
Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.
Mind over matter
David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.
Fool's gold
Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.
We are the championed
Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."
A history of violence
Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.
True romantic
James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.
Playing in the dark
MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.
Junk bonds
Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.
What do you think?
Post your review now